The chapters of this volume were originally contributions pre- sented at
a seminar entitled "The Written Code and Conceptions of Reality" held on
the island of Sydkoster in August, 1985. The seminar was financed by a
grant to the editor from The Swedish Council for Research in the
Humanities and Social Sciences. The word-processing of manuscripts was
carried out by Chri- stine Aranda, Maria Axelson, Marianne Axelson and
Lotta Strand, who carried the major burden. Their help in this project,
as well as in many other common concerns, is deeply appreciated. The
preparation of a book that is a collective enterprise is, in some
respects, greatly facilitated by modern word-processing. When it comes
to putting together the final product, however, the limita- tions of
technologies are easily recognized as a result of the compli- cations
that arise from the variation in systems used by con- tributors. Lotta
Strand was responsible for the coordination neces- sary for completing
the final version of the manuscript. Without her patient efforts and
skills in this new type of literacy, word- processing technology would
have been an obstacle rather than an asset. Excellent bibliographic
assistance was provided by Christina Brage, Lennart Eriksson and Inger
Karlsson of the library at the Departments of Theme Studies of the
University Library of Lin- koping. Linguistic advice on the chapters
written by contributors who were not wise enough to be born with English
as their mother tongue was given by Alex de Courcy.