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How and Why Books Matter: Essays on the Social Functionof Iconic Books, from Equinox, 2019.
Religious and secular communities ritualize some
books in one, two, or three dimensions. They ritualize the dimension of
semantic interpretation through teaching, preaching, and scholarly
commentary. This dimension receives almost all the attention of academic
scholars. Communities also ritualize a text’s expressive dimension
through public reading, recitation, and song, and also by reproducing
its contents in art, theatre and film. This dimension is receiving
increasing scholarly attention, especially in religious studies and
anthropology. A third textual dimension, the iconic dimension, gets
ritualized by manipulating the physical text, decorating it, and
displaying it. This dimension has received almost no academic attention,
yet features prominently in the most common news stories about books,
whether about e-books, academic libraries, rare manuscript discoveries,
or scripture desecrations. By calling attention to the iconic dimension
of books, James Watts argues that we can better understand how physical
books mediate social value and power within and between religious
communities, nations, academic disciplines, and societies both ancient
and modern.
How and Why Books Matter will appeal to a wide range of
readers interested in books, reading, literacy, scriptures, e-books,
publishing, and the future of the book. It also addresses scholarship in
religion, cultural studies, literacy studies, biblical studies, book
history, anthropology, literary studies, and intellectual history.
Table of Contents:
Introduction: The Iconic Books Project 1-5
Chapter 1 How Books Matter: The Three Dimensions of
Scriptures 7-29
Chapter 2 Iconic Books and Texts 31-54
Chapter 3 Relic Texts 55-69
Chapter 4 Iconic Digital Texts: How Rituals Materialize
Virtual Texts 71-81
Chapter 5 Desecrated Scriptures and the News Media 83-98
Chapter 6 Ancient Iconic Texts 99-115
Chapter 7 Rival Iconic Texts: Ten Commandments Monuments and
the U.S. Constitution 117-134
Chapter 8 Book Aniconism: The Codex, Translation and Beliefs
about Immaterial Texts 135-159
Chapter 9 Mass Literacy and Scholarly Expertise 161-166
Chapter 10 Why Books Matter: Preservation and Disposal
167-188
