The field of text technologies is a capacious analytical framework that
focuses on all textual records throughout human history, from the
earliest periods of traceable communication--perhaps as early as 60,000
BCE--to the present day. At its core, it examines the material history
of communication: what constitutes a text, the purposes for which it is
intended, how it functions, and the social ends that it serves.
This coursebook can be used to support any pedagogical or research
activities in text technologies, the history of the book, the history of
information, and textually based work in the digital humanities. Through
careful explanations of the field, examinations of terminology and
themes, and illustrated case studies of diverse texts--from the Cyrus
cylinder to the Eagles' "Hotel California"--Elaine Treharne and Claude
Willan offer a clear yet nuanced overview of how humans convey meaning.
Text Technologies will enable students and teachers to generate
multiple lines of inquiry into how communication--its production, form
and materiality, and reception--is crucial to any interpretation of
culture, history, and society.