Texts and Technology in History ENC 6938

JD Applen

This is one of three core courses in the Texts and Technology Program. In Texts and Technology in History, we will read Walter Ong’s Orality and Literacy, Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, J.D. Bolter’s Writing Space (2^nd Edition), Michel Foucault’s The Order of Things, and Daniel Headrick’s When Information Came of Age. In addition to these texts, there will be some shorter supplementary readings. The course trajectory will be one where we examine just how texts and technologies have changed over four major epochs: the ages of oral speech, literate culture, electronic media, and the “late age of print.” We will also take into account the history of the practice of breaking information down, naming it, and organizing it.