Studying at York
'Imprinted at York:' Decentering Print History - ENG00115H
- Department: English and Related Literature
- Module co-ordinator: Information currently unavailable
- Credit value: 20 credits
- Credit level: H
- Academic year of delivery: 2022-23
Module summary
York played a surprisingly central role in the development of British printing from the seventeenth through the twentieth centuries. The city housed the Royal Printer in 1642 in the leadup to the Civil War and later also gave space to a press that was requisitioned during World War I to print Northern Command Orders for the Royal Army. This module will explore the history of British printing from the perspective of York, taking as its guiding theme the decentering of that history. We will not only focus on a center of printing too-often marginalized in the history books (York), but will also examine the printing and production of textual artefacts that are themselves relegated to the peripheries of the study of print: pamphlets, broadsides, declarations, and ephemeral printed items. In addition, we’ll consider how new people entered and influenced the print trade (such as the printers Alice Broad and Grace White). How can mobilizing local histories help us better understand the nature of knowledge-production and its relationship to publication and circulation? What can studying objects that are often discarded or destroyed tell us about the interaction between the visual and political, the typographic and cultural?
Taking advantage of the archival collections at both the York Minster Library and the Borthwick Institute for Archives as well as the innovative print laboratory housed in the English department, Thin Ice Press, we will tackle these questions of print and publication through hands-on work. We will alternate weeks between the archives and Thin Ice Press. During laboratory periods, students will have an opportunity to use traditional printing practices and technologies to produce works that creatively model the historical and archival sources that were introduced in the related research and lecture week.
Module will run
| Occurrence | Teaching period |
|---|---|
| A | Autumn Term 2022-23 |
Module aims
Students taking this module will gain a deeper appreciation of the nuanced history of print culture and history using York’s rich history as a case study and exemplar. Through class discussions, presentations, and creative work in the press, students will develop skills to critically interpret print history in ways that interrogate traditional “centered” histories.
Module learning outcomes
By the end of this module, the student should be able to:
- Demonstrate an advanced understanding of and engagement with a broad knowledge of York’s print history and provincial printing more broadly.
- Demonstrate an advanced understanding of and engagement with bibliographic and book historical methodologies to ask and answer literary and historical questions by drawing upon archival, manuscript, and rare book resources.
- Evaluate key debates within the relevant critical fields dealing with book history.
- Produce independent arguments and ideas which demonstrate an advanced proficiency in critical & creative thinking, research, and writing skills.
Indicative assessment
| Task | Length | % of module mark |
|---|---|---|
| Essay/coursework 3000 word essay |
N/A | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Additional assessment information
- You will be given the opportunity to submit a 1000 word formative essay for the module, which can feed into the 3000 word summative essay submitted at the end of the module.
- Please hand in a hard copy of your formative essay to your tutor in the seminar – arrangements will be confirmed at the start of the module. It will be annotated and given back to you by your tutor within two weeks. Feedback on the essay will be uploaded to eVision.
- Your summative essay is submitted via the VLE by 12 noon on Monday of week 1 of the following term. Feedback on your summative essay will be uploaded to eVision no later than 4 weeks after submission.
Indicative reassessment
| Task | Length | % of module mark |
|---|---|---|
| Essay/coursework 3000 word essay |
N/A | 100 |
Module feedback
- You will receive feedback on all assessed work within the University deadline, and will often receive it more quickly. The purpose of feedback is to inform your future work; it is designed to help you to improve your work, and the Department also offers you help in learning from your feedback. If you do not understand your feedback or want to talk about your ideas further you can discuss it with your tutor or your supervisor, during their Open Office Hours
- For more information about the feedback you will receive for your work, see the department's Guide to Assessment
Indicative reading
Elizabeth Eisenstein. The Printing Press as an agent of change: Communications and cultural transformations in early modern Europe. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979.
Febvre, Lucien & Henri-Jean Martin. The Coming of the Book: The Impact of Printing, 1450-1800 (various editions).
John Feather. A History of British Publishing pap. Routledge, 2nd edition 2005
Heidi Brayman Hackel. Reading Material in Early Modern England: Print, Gender, and Literacy. Cambridge UP, 2005.