Changing Our Textual Mind

Adriaan van der Weel, the Professor of Book History at Leiden
University, will be visiting MMU to talk about his new book, Changing
Our Textual Minds, on Monday 18 March.

The book emerged from Adriaan's famous course on the History of Text
Transmission at Leiden University. His argument is important, timely
and completely fascinating.

Changing our Textual Minds analyses the continuities and
discontinuities in textual transmission as we move from a print
paradigm into an increasingly digital world. It conceptualises the
transition from analogue to digital both in factual terms and in terms
of its social significance. Our entire way of disseminating knowledge
and culture is firmly based on print culture. The need to come to
grips with the shift to digital textuality in the early twenty-first
century will literally change our minds. Text has always been the
chief vehicle for the inscription and dissemination of knowledge and
culture. As more and more of our textual communication moves into the
digital realm we have reached a crucial moment in the history of
textual transmission. In many respects digital text looks deceptively
like print. But beneath the surface of the screen, digital textuality
obeys very different rules from printed text. The digital textual
universe offers a wealth of new and exciting possibilities -- but it
also sets new rules for the writer's and reader's engagement with
text.

There will be a reception at 5:30pm, followed by a FREE public lecture
at 6:00pm. All are welcome.

Further details of the event are here:
http://www.hssr.mmu.ac.uk/2013/02/20/professor-adriaan-van-der-weel-leiden-university-changing-our-textual-minds/

To reserve your place, please email Helen Darby on h.darby@mmu.ac.uk
or follow this link: http://adriaanvanderweel-arp.eventbrite.com/#