Abstract
Examining the emerging technology of e-readers in current usage, Stephan Packard argues that their mediality has consumers relate to the new cultural and material shape of the book: an object that only partially conforms with general tendencies among ‘new’, ‘digital’ media. Summarizing cultural and material perspectives through polytextuality, Packard interrogates the shifting rules of usage with respect to the knowledge those rules contain. His stance underscores a critical purpose. It sets apart an appraisal of e-readers’ current, probably transient role, as cultural objects, from a much grander, but unrealized earlier promise, discussed in the 1990s, that saw digital reading as a fulfilment of critical tendencies and affordances as continued from traditional reading and writing.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Antón, Carmen, et al. 2013. “Usefulness, Enjoyment, and Self-Image Congruence: The Adoption of e-Book Readers.” Psychology and Marketing 30 (4): 372–384.
Baecker, Dirk. 2007. Studien zur nächsten Gesellschaft. Frankfurt-am-Main: Suhrkamp.
Bohnenkamp, Anne. 2004. “Hybrid statt verfremdend? Überlegungen zu einem Topos der Übersetzungstheorie.” In Linguistik in der Übersetzungswissenschaft, ed. Peter Colliander, et al., 9–26. Tübingen: Groos.
Bolter, Jay David. 1991. Writing Space. The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing. Hillsdale, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Bolter, Jay David, and Richard Grusin. 1998. Remediation. Understanding New Media. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press.
Chomsky, Noam. 1966. Cartesian Linguistics. A Chapter in the History of Rationalist Thought. New York: Harper & Row.
Derrida, Jacques. 1981. Dissemination, trans. Barbara Johnson. Chicago: University Press.
Galey, Alan. 2012. “The Enkindling Reciter: E-Books in the Bibliographical Imagination.” Book History 15: 210–247.
Geertz, Clifford, 1973. “Thick Description: Towards an Interpretative Theory of Culture.” In The Interpretation of Cultures, 3–31. New York: Basic Books.
Genette, Gérard. 1982. Palimpsestes. La Littérature au Second Degré. Paris: Les Éditions du Seuil.
Goodman, Nelson. 1968. Languages of Art. Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill.
Greg, Walter Wilson. 1998. “Bibliography—An Apologia.” In A Collection of His Writings, ed. Joseph Rosenblum, 135–157. Lanham, Md.: Scarecrow Press.
Jenkins, Henry. 2008. Convergence Culture. Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York University Press.
Kirschenbaum, Matthew. 2008. Mechanisms. New Media and the Forensic Imagination. Cambridge, Mass: MIT University Press.
Lachmann, Renate. 1989. “Concepts of Intertextuality.” In Issues in Slavic Literary and Cultural Theory, ed. Karl Eimermacher, et al., 391–399. Bochum: Brockmeyer.
Landow, George. 1992. Hypertext. The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Landow, George. 1997. Hypertext 2.0. [The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology.] Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Landow, George. 2006. Hypertext 3.0. Critical Theory and New Media in an Era of Globalization. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Luhmann, Niklas. 1996. Die Realität der Massenmedien. Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag.
McLuhan, Marshall. 1964. Understanding Media. The Extensions of Man. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Nelson, Ted. 1999. “Ted Nelson’s Computer Paradigm, Expressed as One-Liners”, on line, http://hyperland.com/TedCompOneLiners. (Accessed 2016).
Packard, Stephan. 2009. “Polytextuality as a Type of Digital Transtextuality.” In Beyond Binarisms—Crossings and Contaminations. Studies in Comparative Literature, ed. Eduardo F. Coutinho, and Pina Coco, 393–401. Rio de Janeiro: Aeroplano.
Pfister, Manfred. 1985. “Konzepte der Intertextualität.” In Intertextualität. Formen, Funktionen, anglistische Fallstudien, ed. Manfred Pfister, and Ulrich Broich, 1–30. Tübingen: Niemeyer.
Rosenberg, Martin E. 1994. “Physics and Hypertext. Liberation and Complexity in Art and Pedagogy.” In Hyper/Text/Theory, ed. George Landow, 268–298. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Shin, Dong-Hee. 2011. “Understanding E-book Users: Uses and Gratification Expectancy Model.” New Media & Society 13 (2): 260–278.
Siemens, Ray, et al. 2011. “HCI-Book? Perspectives on E-Book Research, 2006–2008.” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada 49.1: 35–89.
Thibodeau, Kenneth. 2002. “‘Overview of Technological Approaches to Digital Preservation and Challenges in the Coming Years.” In The State of Digital Preservation: An International Perspective, ed. the Council on Library and Information Resources. http://www.clir.org/pubs/reports/pub107/thibodeau.html.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Packard, S. (2018). E-Readers and Polytextual Critique: On Some Emerging Material Conditions in the Early Age of Digital Reading. In: Stead, E. (eds) Reading Books and Prints as Cultural Objects. New Directions in Book History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53832-7_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-53832-7_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-53831-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-53832-7
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)