LLSW4505

From the dawn of the mechanical printing press, the dissemination of ideas has been tied to the means of reproducing words and texts. Since the traditional printed codex and such nineteenth century offshoots as the newspaper and magazine face an uncertain future in a brave new world of digital media and social-networking hucksterism, this seminar will survey the kinds of “worlds built by words” that first flourished in the Renaissance – and may yet flourish again, should imaginative writers and innovative entrepreneurs be up to the task of reinventing serious intellectual publishing in a post-print world. Readings will include texts by Montaigne, Bacon, Bayle, Hume, Marx, Mathew Arnold, Oscar Wilde, Georg Simmel, Paul Valery, Edmund Wilson, George Orwell, Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno, C. Wright Mills, Harold Rosenberg, Isaiah Berlin, Hannah Arendt, Roland Barthes, Susan Sontag, Pauline Kael, Greil Marcus, Guy Debord etc. There will be a variety of guests visiting the class, and also several site visits associated with the class, which will allow students to get a firsthand knowledge of publishing today. Seniors/Juniors only. Please send a paragraph explaining why you'd like to take this course to Prof. James Miller ( millerje@newschool.edu ) in order to be considered.