The Russian Graphosphere, 1450-1850

Explores a new approach to the history of writing, and a guide to writing in the history of Russia.

Simon Franklin (Author)

9781108492577, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 16 May 2019

428 pages, 30 b/w illus.
23.5 x 15.8 x 2.7 cm, 0.83 kg

'Franklin introduces the term [graphosphere] as a 'near neologism,' and with it, inaugurates an entire field. Now that he has done so, readers have cause to celebrate. This is a rare book that opens eyes and reveals new vistas for thought, imagination, and scholarship. It is as electrifying in its novelty as it is dazzling in its erudition … The cumulative force of the book allows us to see the concept of the graphosphere emerge out of a haze and solidify as a real and important way to look at the world, to think about culture and history, to unearth new information and gain new perspectives by cutting across familiar categories in unexpected ways.' Valerie A. Kivelson, Canadian-American Slavic Studies

The 'graphosphere' is the dynamic space of visible words. Graphospheres mutate, they are reconfigured with changes in technology, in modes of production, in social structures, in fashion and taste. The graphospheric environment can be public or private, monumental or ephemeral. This book explores a new approach to the study of writing, with a focus on Russia during its 'long early modernity' from the late fifteenth century to the early nineteenth century. Taking an inclusive approach, it charts unmapped territory, uncovers sources that have almost entirely escaped attention and therefore provides, in the first instance, a unique reference guide to cultures of writing in Russia over four hundred years. Besides generating fresh insights into distinctive features of Russian culture, this outward-looking and accessible book offers a pioneering case study for the wider comparative exploration of the significance of technologies of the word.

1. Concepts and contexts
2. Production in the graphosphere, I: primary writing
3. Production in the graphosphere, II: secondary writing
4. Scripts and languages of the graphosphere
5. Places and times of the graphosphere
6. Aspects of the ecology of the graphosphere
7. Aspects of authority and status in the graphosphere
8. (In)conclusion.

Subject Areas: European history [HBJD], Literary studies: c 1500 to c 1800 [DSBD], Literary studies: classical, early & medieval [DSBB]