Technologies of Writing: From Plato to the Digital Age

Expository Writing 117
Ms. Trubek

"Technologies are not mere exterior aids but also interior transformations of consciousness, and never more than when they affect the word."
--Walter J. Ong, Orality and Literacy

Are computers changing the way we read, write and think? If so, are they also altering our "interior consciousness," our sense of self? In order to approach these questions about reading and writing in (what some have called) a post-print age, this course will explore the history of writing, including past revolutions in writing technology, such as the invention of the alphabet and the printing press. We will do so in order to better understand writing today as a set of individual, cultural and historical practices, and to reflect on how the tools we use to write‰whether tablet, pen, keyboard or screen--affect what we write.

Students will experiment with many different ways of writing and reading from memorization to typewriting to writing hypertext. We will meet in the new laptop seminar room, and we will use computers (nifty new blue and tangerine iBooks!) during class. We will also spend a week in Special Collections looking at pre-print manuscripts, early printed books and other interesting books and writings. No prior computer knowledge is necessary, only a willingness to learn.