Minor Knowledge and Microhistory
Manuscript Culture in the Nineteenth Century
Sigurður Gylfi Magnússon author Davið Ólafsson author
Format:Hardback
Publisher:Taylor & Francis Ltd
Published:14th Oct '16
Currently unavailable, and unfortunately no date known when it will be back
This hardback is available in another edition too:
- Paperback£41.99(9780367264048)
This book studies everyday writing practices among ordinary people in a poor rural society in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Using the abundance of handwritten material produced, disseminated and consumed some centuries after the advent of print as its research material, the book's focus is on its day-to-day usage and on "minor knowledge," i.e., text matter originating and rooted primarily in the everyday life of the peasantry.
The focus is on the history of education and communication in a global perspective. Rather than engaging in comparing different countries or regions, the authors seek to view and study early modern and modern manuscript culture as a transnational (or transregional) practice, giving agency to its ordinary participants and attention to hitherto overlooked source material. Through a microhistorical lens, the authors examine the strength of this aspect of popular culture and try to show it in a wider perspective, as well as asking questions about the importance of this development for the continuity of the literary tradition. The book is an attempt to explain “the nature of the literary culture” in general – how new ideas were transported from one person to another, from community to community, and between regions; essentially, the role of minor knowledge in the development of modern men.
" (...) the authors' analysis of the work and lives of five Icelandic scribes enriches understanding of 19th-century literacy, history, and culture in ways that have applications beyond Icelandic studies and could particularly interest scholars of literacy, philology, historiography, bibliography, and more."
-M. Anderson, Southern Oregon University
ISBN: 9781138812079
Dimensions: unknown
Weight: 476g
242 pages