Wordmongers : post-medieval scribal culture and the case of Sighvatur Grímsson
The subject matter of this thesis is manuscript and scribal culture in the age of print. Its first part explores the flourishing scholarship of post-medieval scribal culture in Europe and beyond over the past 25-30 years, as well as recent trends and turns in the historiography of printing and of li...
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Language: | English |
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University of St Andrews
2009
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10023/770 |
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ftstandrewserep:oai:research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk:10023/770 2023-07-02T03:32:42+02:00 Wordmongers : post-medieval scribal culture and the case of Sighvatur Grímsson Ólafsson, Davíð Houston, R. A. (Robert Allan) 220 p. 2009-11-03T15:31:30Z application/pdf http://hdl.handle.net/10023/770 en eng University of St Andrews The University of St Andrews http://hdl.handle.net/10023/770 Z107.5G8O6 Grímsson Sighvatur 1840-1930 Scribes--Iceland--Biography Transmission of texts--Iceland--19th century Manuscripts Icelandic Books and reading--Iceland--History Icelandic literature--19th century--History and criticism Iceland--Intellectual life--19th century Thesis Doctoral PhD Doctor of Philosophy 2009 ftstandrewserep 2023-06-13T18:27:19Z The subject matter of this thesis is manuscript and scribal culture in the age of print. Its first part explores the flourishing scholarship of post-medieval scribal culture in Europe and beyond over the past 25-30 years, as well as recent trends and turns in the historiography of printing and of literacy. These studies make a strong case for a radical revision of how these fundamental cultural phenomena should be viewed. As a part of the so-called cultural turn and postmodernist revisionism of the 1980s and 1990s, the new trend has been to reject the dichotomies of manuscript versus print and of literacy versus illiteracy in favour of more ambiguous and complex images where multiple media and modes of transmission and reception coexist and interact with each other. The second part of the thesis deals with literary culture in nineteenth-century Iceland: both the general framework of the production, dissemination and consumption of texts, and the individual case of the farmer, fisherman and scribe Sighvatur Grímsson (1840-1930) and his cultural surroundings. Focussing on Sighvatur’s life between 1840 and 1873, the thesis presents an argument about the function of the scribal medium within a poor, rural, and de-institutionalized society. Central to the theoretical framework is a microhistorical approach and the juxtaposition of both narrow and wide scope, zooming from one individual protagonist out to his local surroundings and communities and further out to Icelandic scribal and literary culture as a whole. The scope of the thesis can be described in terms of four concentric circles: the individual, his intimate community, Icelandic society, and the wider European and global context during the ‘post-Gutenbergian era’. Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis Iceland University of St Andrews: Digital Research Repository Sighvatur ENVELOPE(-16.610,-16.610,65.385,65.385) |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
University of St Andrews: Digital Research Repository |
op_collection_id |
ftstandrewserep |
language |
English |
topic |
Z107.5G8O6 Grímsson Sighvatur 1840-1930 Scribes--Iceland--Biography Transmission of texts--Iceland--19th century Manuscripts Icelandic Books and reading--Iceland--History Icelandic literature--19th century--History and criticism Iceland--Intellectual life--19th century |
spellingShingle |
Z107.5G8O6 Grímsson Sighvatur 1840-1930 Scribes--Iceland--Biography Transmission of texts--Iceland--19th century Manuscripts Icelandic Books and reading--Iceland--History Icelandic literature--19th century--History and criticism Iceland--Intellectual life--19th century Ólafsson, Davíð Wordmongers : post-medieval scribal culture and the case of Sighvatur Grímsson |
topic_facet |
Z107.5G8O6 Grímsson Sighvatur 1840-1930 Scribes--Iceland--Biography Transmission of texts--Iceland--19th century Manuscripts Icelandic Books and reading--Iceland--History Icelandic literature--19th century--History and criticism Iceland--Intellectual life--19th century |
description |
The subject matter of this thesis is manuscript and scribal culture in the age of print. Its first part explores the flourishing scholarship of post-medieval scribal culture in Europe and beyond over the past 25-30 years, as well as recent trends and turns in the historiography of printing and of literacy. These studies make a strong case for a radical revision of how these fundamental cultural phenomena should be viewed. As a part of the so-called cultural turn and postmodernist revisionism of the 1980s and 1990s, the new trend has been to reject the dichotomies of manuscript versus print and of literacy versus illiteracy in favour of more ambiguous and complex images where multiple media and modes of transmission and reception coexist and interact with each other. The second part of the thesis deals with literary culture in nineteenth-century Iceland: both the general framework of the production, dissemination and consumption of texts, and the individual case of the farmer, fisherman and scribe Sighvatur Grímsson (1840-1930) and his cultural surroundings. Focussing on Sighvatur’s life between 1840 and 1873, the thesis presents an argument about the function of the scribal medium within a poor, rural, and de-institutionalized society. Central to the theoretical framework is a microhistorical approach and the juxtaposition of both narrow and wide scope, zooming from one individual protagonist out to his local surroundings and communities and further out to Icelandic scribal and literary culture as a whole. The scope of the thesis can be described in terms of four concentric circles: the individual, his intimate community, Icelandic society, and the wider European and global context during the ‘post-Gutenbergian era’. |
author2 |
Houston, R. A. (Robert Allan) |
format |
Doctoral or Postdoctoral Thesis |
author |
Ólafsson, Davíð |
author_facet |
Ólafsson, Davíð |
author_sort |
Ólafsson, Davíð |
title |
Wordmongers : post-medieval scribal culture and the case of Sighvatur Grímsson |
title_short |
Wordmongers : post-medieval scribal culture and the case of Sighvatur Grímsson |
title_full |
Wordmongers : post-medieval scribal culture and the case of Sighvatur Grímsson |
title_fullStr |
Wordmongers : post-medieval scribal culture and the case of Sighvatur Grímsson |
title_full_unstemmed |
Wordmongers : post-medieval scribal culture and the case of Sighvatur Grímsson |
title_sort |
wordmongers : post-medieval scribal culture and the case of sighvatur grímsson |
publisher |
University of St Andrews |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/770 |
op_coverage |
220 p. |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-16.610,-16.610,65.385,65.385) |
geographic |
Sighvatur |
geographic_facet |
Sighvatur |
genre |
Iceland |
genre_facet |
Iceland |
op_relation |
http://hdl.handle.net/10023/770 |
_version_ |
1770272334272266240 |