Paper and the Making of Early Modern Literature

What are the entwined histories of paper and literature? What does real and imagined paper-making have to do with close reading and writing about literary texts? In this talk, Georgina Wilson will discuss not only how paper has physically shaped books, but also how paper gives new meaning to ideas like authorship, composition, and form that determine the work of English studies today. 

Georgina Wilson teaches English at St Hugh's College, Oxford, and is broadly interested in the relationship between literary criticism and material texts. As well as the book she is talking about today, she has  recently co-edited edited two special issues: one called Paper and Poetry: Interventions in Theory and Practice which brings together literary scholars with curators, paper artists and creative writers, and another called The Politics of Book History: Then and Now with Zachary Lesser. She is at work on her second monograph on the entwined histories of book production and literary criticism, and is co-editing a volume with York's Helen Smith entitled Embodied Knowledge: A Handbook.

Book online attendance via Zoom