Literature, Print Culture, and Media Technologies, 1880–1900: Many Inventions PDF
Preview Literature, Print Culture, and Media Technologies, 1880–1900: Many Inventions
LITERATURE, PRINT CULTURE, AND MEDIA – TECHNOLOGIES, From telephones and transoceanic telegraphy to typewriters and phonographs, the era of Bell and Edison brought an array of won- drous new technologies for recording and communication. At the same time, print was becoming a mass medium, as works from newspapers to novels exploited new markets and innovations in publishing to address expanded readerships. Amid the accelerated movements of inventions and language, questions about media change became a transatlantic topic, connecting writers from Whit- man to Kipling, Mark Twain to Bram Stoker and Marie Corelli. Media multiplicity seemed either to unite societies or bring division and conflict, to emphasize the material nature of communication or itstranscendentside,tohighlightdistinctionsbetweenmediaortolet them be ignored. Literature, Print Culture, and Media Technologies, –analyzesthisfermentasauthorssoughttounderstandthe places of printed writing in the late nineteenth century’s emerging media cultures. isanassociateprofessorofEnglishattheUniversity of Georgia. He is the author of Telegraphic Realism: Victorian Fiction and Other Information Systems () and a three-time recipient of essayprizesfromtheSocietyforLiterature,Science,andtheArts. - General Editor Gillian Beer, University ofCambridge Editorial Board Isobel Armstrong, Birkbeck,University ofLondon Kate Flint, University ofSouthern California CatherineGallagher, University ofCalifornia, Berkeley D.A. Miller,University ofCalifornia, Berkeley J.Hillis Miller,University ofCalifornia, Irvine Daniel Pick,Birkbeck,University ofLondon MaryPoovey, New YorkUniversity Sally Shuttleworth, University ofOxford HerbertTucker,University ofVirginia Nineteenth-century British literature and culture have been rich fields for inter- disciplinary studies. Since the turn of the twentieth century, scholars and critics have tracked the intersections and tensions between Victorian literature and the visual arts, politics, social organization, economic life, technical innovations, scientific thought – in short, culture in its broadest sense. In recent years, theoretical challenges and historiographical shifts have unsettled theassumptions ofpreviousscholarlysynthesisandcalledintoquestionthetermsofolderdebates. Whereas thetendency inmuch past literary critical interpretation was touse the metaphor of culture as ‘background’, feminist, Foucauldian, and other analyses have employed more dynamic models that raise questions of power and of circulation. Such developments have reanimated the field. This series aims to accommodate and promote the most interesting work being undertaken on the frontiersofthefieldofnineteenth-century literary studies: workwhichintersects fruitfullywithotherfieldsofstudysuchashistory,orliterarytheory,orthehistory of science.Comparative as well as interdisciplinaryapproaches are welcomed. Acomplete list oftitlespublished will be found at the end ofthe book. LITERATURE, PRINT CULTURE, AND MEDIA – TECHNOLOGIES, Many Inventions RICHARD MENKE UniversityofGeorgia UniversityPrintingHouse,Cambridge,UnitedKingdom OneLibertyPlaza,thFloor,NewYork,,USA WilliamstownRoad,PortMelbourne,,Australia –,rdFloor,Plot,SplendorForum,JasolaDistrictCentre,NewDelhi–,India AnsonRoad,#–/,Singapore CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge. ItfurtherstheUniversity’smissionbydisseminatingknowledgeinthepursuitof education,learning,andresearchatthehighestinternationallevelsofexcellence. www.cambridge.org Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/ :./ ©RichardMenke Thispublicationisincopyright.Subjecttostatutoryexception andtotheprovisionsofrelevantcollectivelicensingagreements, noreproductionofanypartmaytakeplacewithoutthewritten permissionofCambridgeUniversityPress. Firstpublished PrintedintheUnitedKingdombyTJInternationalLtd.PadstowCornwall AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData :Menke,Richard,author. :Literature,printculture,andmediatechnologies,–:manyinventions/ RichardMenke. :Cambridge;NewYork,NY:CambridgeUniversityPress,.| Series:Cambridgestudiesinnineteenth-centuryliteratureandculture| Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. :|(hardback:alk.paper)| ::Printing–Socialaspects–History–thcentury.|Massmedia–Social aspects–History–thcentury.|Printing–Technologicalinnovations–History–th century.|Massmedia–Technologicalinnovations–History–thcentury. :.|./–dc LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/ ----Hardback CambridgeUniversityPresshasnoresponsibilityforthepersistenceoraccuracy ofURLsforexternalorthird-partyinternetwebsitesreferredtointhispublication anddoesnotguaranteethatanycontentonsuchwebsitesis,orwillremain, accurateorappropriate. Contents List of Figures page vi Acknowledgments viii Introduction: Inventing Media and Their Meanings A Message on All Channels: The Unification of Humanity Fictions of the Victorian Telephone: The Medium Is the Media New Media, New Journalism, New Grub Street: Unsanctified Typography The Sinking of the Triple-Decker: Format Wars Writers of Books: The Unmediated Novel Words Fail: Occulting Media into Information A Connecticut Yankee’s Media Wars: Orality and Obliteracy After Words: The End of the Book Bibliography Notes Index v Figures . Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville’s phonautograph. Ganot, Elementary Treatise on Physics (). Courtesy of University of Georgia Libraries. page . Scott, “No. – Au Clair de la Lune” (). Firstsounds.org. . Telautograph receiver. William Maver, Jr., “Professor Gray’s New Telautograph,” Engineering Magazine (), –. Courtesy of University of Georgia Libraries. . Posting Garfield’s medical bulletins under the electric arc lamps of Broadway. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (September , ). Special Collections, University of Virginia Library. . Diagram of the induction balance and the other components of Bell’s detector. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (August , ). Special Collections, University of Virginia Library. . Bell listens for the bullet. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper (August , ). Special Collections, University of Virginia Library. . Chart showing Garfield’s temperature, pulse, and respiration. Ridpath, Life and Work of James A. Garfield (). Collection of the author. . Long-distance transmission without a telegraphic code: handwritten Chinese via telautograph. William Maver, Jr., “Professor Gray’s New Telautograph,” Engineering Magazine (), –. Courtesy of University of Georgia Libraries. . Mediating heterosexual connections: young women at the switchboards. “The Telephone Exchange in London,” The Graphic (September , ). Collection of the author. . “A Few Incidents in Connection with Tit-Bits.” Tit-Bits (). ©The British Library Board / The Image Works. vi List of Figures vii . “A Modern Correspondence Department” as media system. Promotional postcard (). Courtesy of Schreibmaschinenmuseum Peter Mitterhofer. . Beard, “The stranger’s story.” Twain, A Connecticut Yankee. Courtesy of University of Georgia Libraries. . Beard, “Beginnings of civilization.” Twain, A Connecticut Yankee. Courtesy of University of Georgia Libraries. . Patent complexity: the Paige Compositor. U.S. Patent , (). . Little crudities of a mechanical sort. Twain, A Connecticut Yankee. Courtesy of University of Georgia Libraries. . Robida, the author’s voice. Uzanne, “The End of Books,” Scribner’s Magazine (August ). Courtesy of University of Georgia Libraries. . Mark Twain in Nikola Tesla’s laboratory. Century Magazine (April ). Courtesy of University of Georgia Libraries. Acknowledgments Having written a book that tracks printed writing and media systems in the late nineteenth century, I find it a particular pleasure to acknowledge thesystemsofcollaborationandsupportthathavemadethisworkpossible in the early twenty-first. Parts of this book began in a National Endow- ment for the Humanities Summer Seminar with Katherine Hayles many years ago; I’m thankful to Kate and my fellow seminarians for their encouragement. That work also benefitted from fellowships from the Provost’s Office and the Willson Center for Humanities and Arts at the University of Georgia (UGA), gratefully acknowledged here. My depart- ment heads in the English Department – Doug Anderson, Mike Moran, Jed Rasula, and Michelle Ballif – also supported my research; Jed even helpedmerearrangemyteachingscheduleinordertocompleteafirstdraft of the manuscript. This work has gained greatly from discussions with current and former colleagues, including Kris Boudreau and Roxanne Eberle, as well as from the intellectual conviviality provided by UGA’s Colloquium for Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Literature. I especially appreciate the feedback from a lively colloquium workshop attended by Casie Legette, Tricia Lootens, Elizabeth Kraft, Chris Pizzino, Teresa Saxton, Nancee Reeves, Sara Steger, and my late, dearly missed colleague Christy Desmet. Thanks as well to Lindsey Harding and Eliza- bethDavisfororganizingretreatsatwhichacademicwritingwasnurtured and fed. Ihave benefitted from thesupport of two writers’groups: whileRachel Ablow, Danny Hack, Ivan Kreilkamp, and Rachel Teukolsky provided camaraderie via shared drafts and critique, Eleanor Courtemanche, Brad Deane, Deanna Kreisel, Scott MacKenzie, and Patricia Tilburg offered dailyencouragementwithoutsharinganywritingatall.Itwasalsohelpful toexchangeworkindividuallywithRachelTeukolsky,SusanZieger,Doug Anderson, and Leslie Simon. This book reflects many conversations (in person and online) about media with interlocutors such as Susan Zieger, viii
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