1Book / Media Theory

Abstract

In 2018, scholarship in book/media theory sketched the ways in which books embody time, shape our experience of time, and live in time. In particular, authors examine the book as a material object that resists being placed in a cohesive, progressive history (Whitney Trettien, Deidre Lynch, Michelle Sizemore, John Plotz), and that bends and textures linear temporality through the experience of reading (Christina Lupton). This review also discusses new theoretical discourses surrounding the material book, including new materialism (Jonathan Senchyne), the digital notion of ‘interactivity’ (The Multigraph Collective), and the concept of rarity (David McKitterick). Recurring through many of the works this year is a call to reconsider our definitions of the book and the archive, as scholars peer into the less well-known, cut-and-paste world of scrapbooks. This chapter is structured under the following headings: 1. The Time of Reading; 2. Books in Time; 3. Books in History; 4. Bookish Agencies.