Module: ENG7003-30 - Materialities: the Past and Futures of the Book

Level: 7

Credit Value: 30

Module Tutor: Stephen Gregg

Module Tutor Contact Details: s.gregg@bathspa.ac.uk

1.Brief description and aims of module

The written word is embodied, whether in print or in electrical charges stored in a chip. It can come to us in a book or serialised in a journal, in a pamphlet or as art, via a database or as a mobile app. Each material form has its own history, and each form fundamentally changes the questions we can ask of the words embodied therein. This module explores the book - ‘the most powerful object of our time’ (Houston) - as both a capacious idea and a fluid yet material form.

2.Outline syllabus

The syllabus might typically divide into two or three thematic sections which will be configured to address emerging fields of scholarship and shifting research agendas. These could be drawn from a list of such topics as:

• Old books, new technologies: digital translations.
• Cross- and transmedia: stories, games, and apps.
• Art or text? Experiments in the printed book.
• Beyond the author: printing / editing / curating / remediating / coding.
• The biography of books.

The module invites you to learn through practice. It utilises creative engagement with the forms and mediums that you study, in tandem with historical and theoretical scholarly approaches.

This combination of fabrication and critical work also offers you the opportunity to work with external organisations. For example: Bath Record Office; Guildhall Library (City of London); Stationers’ Hall; Baytun’s Bookbinders; 18thConnect; Wells Cathedral Library; Marlborough Literary Festival; Special Collections at Cardiff and Exeter University libraries. Other internal collaborations might include BSU Library Special Collections, the Making Books Research Centre, and the Centre for Cultural and Creative Industries.

3.Teaching and learning activities

The module revolves around a combination of historical knowledge, theoretical reflection, and hands-on fabrication. It is envisaged that contact time will therefore combine workshop- and seminar-style activities. Where possible, there might be field trips to relevant organisations, businesses or institutions (such as Special Collections).

Assessment Item 1:

• Assessment Type: Course Work
• Description: Independent Project (7,000 words or equivalent).

A negotiated project that might typically consist of various elements, for example a ‘making’ element and a critical element.

The ‘making’ element might, for example, consist of:

• Curating book images or a mock-up exhibition
• 3D printing of printer’s tools and materials
• Mock-up of literary journal
• Using the Albion letter-press to make a pamphlet or small book
• A scholarly digital edition
• The history or ‘biography’ of a book-copy
• Cross- or transmedia adaptation (e.g. as board game, app, or social media).

Such fabrications will be accompanied by a critical writing element: this can take the form of, for example, an essay, critical commentary, report, personal reflection, blogging for the general public, or any appropriate combination thereof. The making and the critical elements can be presented in any combination of printed, electronic, or online forms, or the critical element may be presented in the very medium that it is analysing.

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