The Work of Print
Subtitle: Authorship and the English Text Trades, 1660-1760 (Literary Conjugations, a Robert B. Heilman Book)
Publisher: University of Washington Press
Published: November 30, 2007
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9780295987446
Subjects: Gender studies; Literary theory; Language Arts & Disciplines; Business / Economics / Finance; Language; Commerce; Books & Reading; Media Studies; Publishing; 17th century; 18th century; Authorship; Book industries and trade; England; History
Description: "The Work of Print traces a shift in the very definition of literature, from one that encompasses the material conditions of the production and distribution of books to the more familiar emphasis on the solitary author's ownership of an abstract text. Printers' manuals, tracts on typography, legal documents, and booksellers' autobiographies reveal that in the seventeenth century, print workers conceived of their roles as central to the production of literature. Maruca's readings of these documents alongside traditional works of fiction and authors' correspondence show that the claims of print-workers and booksellers were part of a struggle for ownership and control as the concept of author as proprietor of his or her intellectual property began to take hold in the mid-1700s, gradually eclipsing print workers' contributions to the process of textual creation."--book jacket.