Taking turns in Australasia: Histories of the book in Australia and New Zealand

[Extract] With the rise of book history elsewhere, the last two decades in Australia and New Zealand has seen a sharp increase in studies of books and other printed forms as significant mediums of cultural transmission. This is reflected most clearly in a series of book-length studies that established the foundations of the field in Australia and New Zealand, directing attention to the work that needs to be done in order to develop a better understanding of print culture, more broadly. So far, the bulk of this understanding has been built on analyses of extant archival evidence which focus on the construction of histories bounded by national and, perhaps, nationalistic discourses. Such discourses have attracted criticism in recent years from advocates of trans-national histories that position Australian and New Zealand cultural production in a global frame. This has occurred in step with the development of national bibliographical databases and other digitisation initiatives, energising the study of book history in Australia and New Zealand with a computational turn that promises to challenge and extend the field by presenting large-scale alternatives to the micro-studies that have dominated the field to date. To suggest how this might influence the way book history is done in Australia and New Zealand in the next decade, this essay reflects on the major volumes devoted to the history of the book in Australia and New Zealand, it summarises a selection of essays that respond to the national and empirical foundations of the field, and it considers the methodological and theoretical challenges posed by new studies that draw on trans-national themes and computational methods.

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Jaarboek voor Nederlandse Boekgeschiedenis (Dutch Book History Yearbook)

2013

9789460041365

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