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After Words

The End of the Book

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  30 September 2019

Richard Menke
Affiliation:
University of Georgia
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Summary

Even before the end of the nineteenth century, Octave Uzanne’s essay “The End of Books” (1894) portrayed the arrival of newer media as the fin of print culture. In this account, books are heavy and slow, newer media are light and liberating, and modern culture is an area of obsolescence and obliteration. A richer consideration of the varieties of print formats and the relationships between print and nonprint media might help us avoid the inclinations that come together in such accounts and their many modern successors. Uzanne’s vision of a post-print culture actually illuminates the late nineteenth century’s cultures of print. A contemporary image of Mark Twain in Nikola Tesla’s lab offers a more illuminating figure for the relationships between literature, print and nonprint media, and new technology.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2019

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  • After Words
  • Richard Menke, University of Georgia
  • Book: Literature, Print Culture, and Media Technologies, 1880–1900
  • Online publication: 30 September 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108631884.009
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  • After Words
  • Richard Menke, University of Georgia
  • Book: Literature, Print Culture, and Media Technologies, 1880–1900
  • Online publication: 30 September 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108631884.009
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • After Words
  • Richard Menke, University of Georgia
  • Book: Literature, Print Culture, and Media Technologies, 1880–1900
  • Online publication: 30 September 2019
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108631884.009
Available formats
×