Emphasis on Bibliography

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The understanding of bibliography and its various pedagogies is a crucial component to discovering, preserving, and understanding the complex implications that a book endures in order to be looked at retrospectively. From The Bibliographical Society of America website, George Thomas Tanselle says, “Bibliography is the branch of historical scholarship that examines any handwritten and printed book as physical objects”, and “What links all bibliographical pursuits is an understanding of the significance of book as tangible products of human endeavor.” Books are longtime tools with enriched histories that can be ambiguous. The technicality of papermaking, book designing, typesetting, etc. matter tremendously in conjunction with the social and historical context with which they are made from. In order to account for the history of a book requires a broad familiarization with the culture and time period with which it began and has travelled through.

There is an immense amount of effort that goes into understanding the traditional bibliographical approaches and applying the required scholarly research to critically link histories in an attempt to understand a single book. It is an arduous process that rewards the human species, in hope that the interpretation of a book’s life can spark the intuitiveness of another being. As students of the book, it is important to think critically about the materials, records, and circumstances which shroud the history of the primary medium which we are learning about. From our modern perspective as well, I wonder how digital literature differs in terms of tracing the ecology from which they derive from, and am excited to apply the same scholarly research in that direction.

The Banking Method of Education as Reflected by the Bibliography

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The readings today were posted by the Bibliographical Society of America to familiarize readers with the history and various definitions of bibliography. Personally, I was unaware of Belanger’s various types of bibliography which was vastly different from my understanding of bibliography as simply a list of citations. I would argue that the banking method of education as coined by Paulo Freire illustrates the reason why enumerative bibliography is so much more popular than analytical bibliography. For context, the banking method of education is a liberation pedagogy which states that students are treated as receptacles to be filled with information as opposed to human beings with the ability to critically think and learn.

Analytical bibliography encourages subjective interpretation as opposed to enumerative and descriptive bibliography, which seem to study books in a denotative and scientific manner. This encourages very little critical thinking because it is all observation. The information input and output has little subjectivity of human experience. “Analytical bibliography may deal with the history of printers and booksellers, with the description of paper or bindings, or with textual matters arising during the progression from writer’s manuscript to published book…” all of which require students of the book to analyze with their subjective and heavily experiential knowledge of history, people, technology, and much more.

Analytical bibliography is less easily utilized by a banking method of education because it is harder to treat students as receptacles to be filled with information when they are actively encouraged to use their knowledge which is informed by their experiences. I think it is very important to teach students the differences between various forms of bibliographies because it can be the difference between teaching books (and thus, most science and literature) in an alienated versus human manner. Additionally, students being taught how to approach information in books contextually paves the path for a more critical analysis of concepts otherwise seen as objective.

The readings spoke tragically little regarding Liberation Bibliography from Spires and the connections between critical theory and bibliography as written by Maruca and Ozment, however, these are texts I suspect would discuss similar topics to Freire and I would like to delve into at another time.

Traces

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I think there are traces of everyone we meet and have a relationship with etched deeply into ourselves. I think about my past friend Arwen who liked to dip her sourdough bread into her tomato soup—a behavior I still do today, even if our friendship has long since ended. This is also true of physical items such as books, scrolls, etc as mentioned in our reading, “What is Bibliography?” From marks left on the pages indicating wire lines that ran across the wooden mould to a watermark, there are physical traces are present on the object itself showing the relationship between the maker(s) and the object. There are other marks that could lead to who once held the book, and their ideas on it written with in the margins. Just like Dr. Culbertson said, it’s a mystery and we are the detectives who are tasked with unearthing the objects history. I’m finding out this class is as much archeology as it is history and english. We could also think of ourselves as Indiana Jones, without the dangerous adventures (maybe), looking for something in unfamiliar territory.

These traces also lead us to ask why and what. Why was this method used? Why was this specific material used? What can we gleam from this information? What is the significance of using this method and material? What is the meaning of the universe and why are we here? (Okay maybe not that one.) (No I wasn’t trying to reach the word count.) (Why are you still reading within the parentheses?) These are questions that might not always have answers because they are lost in the void or to time, but it is important to hypothesize because it is important for us to try and understand, so we can figure out where we as a society want to go. In the short excerpts we read, a couple of them. (Derrick Spires, Lisa Maruca and Kate Ozment) mention using Bibliography as a way to identify as wells as resist oppression and also mend structures of oppression. All through sometimes microscopic traces left on books, scrolls, etc. I only wish we had more time, and resources (such as carbon dating, microscopes, etc.) available to us to aid in our journey this semester.

The Biography of Texts: Production, Context, Reception

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Our class began by looking at books as objects with various characteristics. Books have both material elements, such as paper, glue, and ink, and content elements, such as the content itself, the table of contents, and, not to be forgotten, the bibliography.

D.F. McKenzie takes up this idea in “Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts.” For him, bibliography is “the discipline that studies texts as recorded forms, and the processes of their transmission, including their production and reception.” His following statement is crucial: “forms effect meaning.” A text is therefore dependent on its form; its materiality influences how it is perceived and understood.

At the same time, we know that we need context to understand texts and their messages. McKenzie makes it clear that bibliography examines not only the technical aspects, such as paper, typography, and binding, but also the social processes. Who produces a text? Who distributes it? Who reads it? A newspaper in the 19th century, a novel, or a post on Instagram—all are texts, but the medium and their context change what they mean. McKenzie also expands the term further by writing that bibliography should encompass “all forms of texts.” This includes flyers, digital media, and other forms of recording. The core idea that bibliography can be understood as the life story of texts is very interesting. From production to distribution to reception. It shows that texts have a history.

In conclusion, McKenzie summarizes: “[Bibliography] can, in short, show the human presence in any recorded text.” I find this quote essential to understanding that books are not neutral objects. They carry a history that arises from the traces of human beings. The producer, the readers, and the publishers unconsciously create a story. Every text is therefore also a document of its time. Once again, I think back to our discussion in class: What is a book? I notice how every insight comes back to this question. And again and again, elements are added that I hadn’t thought about before.

Analytical Bibliography

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I was not aware that there were multiple meanings to bibliography. I am most used to the bibliographic definition of the word, meaning the categorization of a text. Bibliographical refers to the study of the physical aspects of the text and its historical contexts. Since we’ve been discussing the physical sources of information, I found it fitting that the website for the Bibliographical Society of America had many interactive elements, like the slideshow of different texts with hover text about the physical elements of that text. The website also had lots of citations with links to the information that led to the original sources of information. It drew attention to the fact that I don’t see that type of practice very often on most websites that I visit, unless they are specifically a news organization. 

The further reading section details a timeline of the gradual definition of bibliography. In this timeline we can see that the definition of analytical/critical bibliographical studies has evolved to include a wide variety of critical studies for the sake of “identifying and repairing the harms of systemic racism, settler colonialism, heteropatriarchy, and other oppressive structures” (Derrick Spires, “On Liberation Bibliography” (2022). 
The first definition of in the timeline, from W. W. Greg, “Bibliography – A Retrospect” (1945), Greg describes bibliography as “the study of books as material objects irrespective of their contents.” Greg views the study of the book as something separate from the contents. However, from Borsuk and our discussions in class, I understand the study of books as objects to include the content, considering that the conditions of the object inform the content.

I think the understanding of bibliography as a political practice, as discussed in Lisa Maruca and Kate Ozment’s “What is Critical Bibliography?”, is relevant and useful in the time we live in, where I feel more people are starting to get more comfortable discussing the larger political systems that shape our everyday lives.

Ruminations on the Study of Books

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A bibliography. We’ve all done one, most of us, even more than a few times. What I have realized is how this word has been used loosely and collectively to describe the study of books; Terry Belanger says, “To the book collector, the word bibliography properly means the study of books; a bibliographer is one who studies them. But the word is shopworn. Bibliography has many common definitions, and because collectors, scholars, and librarians too often use the word indiscriminately, it lacks precision.” This precision is exactly what I think will help me create not only a critically competent bibliography but a strong thesis and creative project. The analytical bibliography looks intriguing as it encapsulates all the core practices of what the whole study of books should be, specifically for the bibliography.

I have learned, both in our discussions and in our labs, that the book is more than a readable piece of content; it is both a container of specific history and an ever-changing medium that reflects the time in which it was produced. And things, from errors to marginalia, are just as important to a book’s story. This medium, especially during the Incunabula, was a process that not only required more intimate attention but also necessitated expertise and experience. Many people during this time had jobs due to this extremely laborious process. From bookplates to illuminated pages with intricate designs, the skill needed, the errors made, and the crucial marginalia found within these texts, these books became priceless artifacts that even reflected the families that owned them.

This is something I have never thought about incorporating into a bibliography before: the history of the book and its contents, both printed and handwritten. Usually, I don’t, but the only time I make one is at the end of an essay, and it’s a subset of a bibliography, a works cited page. With all that being said, I really think this class has helped me not only change my academic way of thinking about what a book is and what goes into an investigation of a specific book, but also what it is in general. The book is a medium and an everlasting and ever-changing form of communication integral to not only humanity’s progress but its preservation as well.

Curiosities about Digital Bibliography

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When considering what a bibliography was, I assumed it would be a sort of contextual listing that could give context into the written contents of a book, similar to the bibliography seen at the end of essays. But, as The Bibliographical Society of America states on the About Page, “Bibliography is much more than your ‘works cited’ page.” A bibliography examines and assesses the physical aspects of a text and how those aspects relate and reflect the time the text was made. 

The art of bibliography is composed of numerous practices like enumerative, systematic, analytical, critical, descriptive, historical, and textual, as Terry Belanger mentions. All of which aim to decipher a book’s physicality and history. When reading how bibliography is approached and interacting with the examples on the website, I began to understand what sort of questions one must ask in order to really understand a book. Things like: What are the physical aspects of the paper used? Are there any splotches of ink from messy printing or etchings in the paper from whatever machine was used on the paper? What’s written on the page other than the story?

I thought it was interesting when interacting with the second sample of The Bibliographical Society of America’s About Page, which points out that “anonymous print production is a common occurrence, especially when the content is political.” When considering how political content was published anonymously, I thought about how today it’s almost virtually impossible to make any statement without a digital footprint being left behind. Though many posts may go under the radar as millions of people make daily posts, simultaneously, with enough care from one netizen, whoever made a certain post or appeared in some video can be traced, along with a good chunk of their personal history. This makes me wonder how modern bibliography is being approached today, especially because G. Thomas Tanselle, in Bibliography Defined,” mentions that “traditional bibliographical approaches are also now being applied to objects carrying electronic texts.” Reading how books can be explored outside of just their written content, though it’s most certainly considered, has gotten me excited to attempt creating my own bibliography with something from Special Collections. 

Books as Organisms

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Never in my life have I considered books to be similar to a living creature. Yes, I know they are made of organic materials and that they each have a story (just like humans, dogs, or even fungi). Yet, books have evolved just like any other species, they have lived through millennia, and they have started in very different circumstances from where they are today. Books were made for humans, but the reason why and how they are still made has changed throughout history.

That is why bibliography is a thing. Yes, humans have invented a study of human inventions, but specifically for books. It isn’t simply about reading the contents of a book, but “the study of the lives of material books, widely defined, including their production, circulation, and reception” (“What is Critical Bibliography?”). Books signify great shifts in human history from political, social, and ideological means. By reading the physicality of a book (and not the exact contents), we can see how different societies functioned and how knowledge was disseminated to the public. We can see where the books come from based on the materials used as well as how the materials are used. We can see who bound the book and when based on the intricate binding patterns. All of these details matter to book history and understanding books as a functional part of human society.

While we might observe the physical aspects of books and determine where and when they were made, we can also observe intellectual and artifactual evidence of authors, readers, and scholars from a specific era. For example, an original copy of a book might’ve been handwritten, with a copy manuscripts produced. Take for example, The Canterbury Tales, one of the most handwritten English texts, that had 84 manuscripts and 4 incunabula (prior to 1500). This book received heavy criticism from scholars who’d write on copies, leaving marginalia, another aspect of bibliography to be studied. Bibliographers can use marginalia to see how books were received by audiences and learn of various social factors during that time.

What we have been learning in our lab is also incredibly valuable. It is difficult for me to even imagine a handwritten book. All I have ever read has been typescript books, all mass-produced and hardly made for longevity. The Book by Amaranth Borsuk that I own is already falling apart and I bought it at the beginning of September. We are living in an age where we aren’t taught to value the physical nature of the book but to consume the knowledge the text offers. Today, most books are made of cheap materials for cost-effectiveness and mass-dissemination, lacking the quality they used to have. While I whole-heartedly agree with the idea to make books accessible to the public and not just scholars, I also believe that, by understanding the nature of bibliography, is to also bring in perspectives that pertain to the environment and how we can adapt rather than it having to change for us.

The Life of a Book

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When being taught to write and research in schools today, students are often only introduced to the enumerative bibliography which systematically lists books, however, physical aspects of the book are ignored. While this approach is vital for organization and giving credit in Works Cited pages, it overlooks the important historical and cultural insights that can be gained from considering the story told from a book’s physical form and materiality. As book scholars, creating analytical bibliographies, which study books as physical artifacts, allows the book to be understood as a living object that has its own history shaped by geography and culture and its own story that exists separate from its contents. 

W.W. Greg, a 20th century leader in establishing the bibliography as the study of a book’s physical evidence, advocates for the significance of a book’s material existence. He highlights the significance of the analytical bibliography by describing, “the object of bibliographical study is, I believe, to reconstruct for each particular book the history of its life, to make it reveal in its most intimate detail the story of its birth and adventures as the material vehicle of the living word. As an extension of this follows the investigation of the methods of production in general and of the conditions of survival,” (27). By making specific note of the book having a “history of its life” within its materiality, Greg acknowledges the book as a living object that is not static throughout its existence. As the book evolves from “its birth and adventures,” it can be understood how the book’s existence amasses its own stories separate from the author and its contents. Through observing the physical composition of books like its paper, spine, binding, ink cover, the book reveals how it is an agent of active change rather than a container for information.

Recognizing these conditions is especially important in telling lost histories. While book production and circulation has been historically dominated by white wealthy men, liberation bibliographies can help combat systematic suppression of minority groups by recognizing oppressive structures. Similarly, critical bibliographies explore how book history can be reshaped for the bibliography to be used to resist oppression. Through the utilization of bibliographies as a restorative tool, those historically erased have the opportunity for their histories to be restored and written. For the humanities, this is an important political act in forming a more complete understanding of human history and as a political act recognizing the errors in how we’ve viewed dominant historical narratives.

From Last Week to This – A Book’s Body and Its Life

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While exploring the further reading section of What is Bibliography, I stumbled on one excerpt in particular, the one from W. W. Greg’s Bibliography – A Retrospect (1945). What he writes instantly reminded me of the thought process I had last week when I was reading Chapter 2 of Borsuk’s The Book. There Borsuk compares the codex to a human body, with a spine, a head, and even a tail (The Book, 77). I think while Greg technically makes a different comparison, they still connect very well.

Greg describes bibliography as “the study of books as material objects irrespective of their contents.” For him, the goal is “to reconstruct for each particular book the history of its life, to make it reveal in its most intimate detail the story of its birth and adventures as the material vehicle of the living word.” I find it interesting that he talks about a book as if it had a biography. The words “birth” and “adventures” make it sound very much alive. They turn the book into something with its own story, separate from the words printed inside. Suddenly, the bent spine, the faded paper, or the scribbled notes in the margins all become traces of the book’s life.

Borsuk makes a similar point in a different way. Her comparison of the codex to a body also takes the book out of its role as a container. With a spine, a head, and a tail, the book looks like something with presence, something we hold and interact with like a living form. What makes this especially interesting to me is that it connects so directly to what I thought about last week. In my last blog, I reflected on how Borsuk’s metaphor made me realize that a book is not just information but something we meet, almost like a companion. The hinge of the cover, for example, pulling open the first page like an invitation, felt to me like the book was active, as if it greeted us. Reading Greg’s description, that thought immediately comes back to me. He gives the book not just a body but a life story. Putting the two together, the book becomes a being that has both a form and a past. It has a presence we can feel and a biography we can trace. This is why Greg’s passage stood out to me so much, as it reminded me of my own realization from last week.

In the end, both writers remind me that reading is more than just taking in words. Each book has its own presence, shaped by the people who produced it and the readers who left their marks on it. To open a book is not only to read its text. It is also to meet a life that has already been lived.