1 _ The book is one of the oldest communication supports we know and that is still very present in our lives. It serves as an information container unit, as an ultimate object of materialisation of text and image, giving it texture, dimension, smell, enabling its edition, reproduction and archive. It’s an expressive object as canvas for literature or history’s documental record. This is a technology that doesn’t become obsolete, has value and character on its own and continues on boosting varied areas of creation.
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L ANGUAGES, BOOKS, AND READING _ 2 _
In the order of discourse, we are confronted with what
connections between the material object, the work (in
is perhaps the most fundamental rupture of all. Indeed,
the sense of a specific work or of a series of works), and
in the written culture as we know it, such an order is
the author were finally established.
established from the relationship between objects
The third legacy is, of course, the invention of the
(the letter, the book, the newspaper, the magazine,
printing press in the mid-fifteenth century. From that
the poster, the form, and so on), categories of texts,
moment on, without it having caused the disappear-
and different uses of the written word. This connec-
ance of scribal publication—far from it—the printing
tion, which links types of objects, categories of texts,
press became the most utilized technology for the
Living in the current digital age, new technologies
and forms of reading, is the result of a historical
reproduction of the written word and for the produc-
are in constant development and the transition of
layering of three fundamental innovations. The first
tion of books.
the printed page to the screen seems inevitable. We
took place in the early centuries of the Christian era
now have a much more close relationship with text,
when the codex as we still know it, that is, a book made
We are the heirs of these three historical developments,
provided by this electronic evolution. The e-book
up of leaves and pages gathered into the same binding
as much for the definition of the book that is for us
makes producing, reproducing and experiencing text
or covering, replaced the scroll or volumen, that book
both an object different from other objects of written
much more easy, accessible and dynamic with tools
of a completely different structure which belonged to
culture and an intellectual or esthetic work endowed
that take the most out of the digitalisation of the book.
Greek and Roman readers.
with an identity and a coherence assigned to its author,
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The second rupture occurred in the fourteenth
as for a perception of written culture based on imme-
and fifteenth centuries, before Gutenberg’s invention,
diate, material distinctions between objects that are
with the appearance of the libro unitario, as Arman-
associated with different textual genres and usages.
do Petrucci called it, the book that, for texts in the
It is this order of discourse that electronic textuali-
vernacular, assembled in the same binding all the
ty calls into question. Indeed, it is the same apparatus,
works of a single author, or even just one sole work.
in this case the computer screen, that enables differ-
Although this type of book was already the rule for
ent types of texts to appear in front of the reader, texts
juridical collections, canonical works of the Christian
that, in the world of the scribal and a fortiori printed
tradition, or the classics of antiquity, the same was
cultures, were distributed among distinct objects.
not true for texts in the vernacular that, in general,
In the digital word, all texts, whatever their genre, are
were assembled into miscellanies made up of works of
produced or received through the same medium and
different dates, genres, or languages. It was around
in very similar forms, usually decided on by the read-
figures such as Petrarch or Boccaccio,Christine de
er him- or herself. Thus a textual continuity is created
Pisan or Rene´ of Anjou that, for “modern” writers,
that no longer differentiates discourses on the basis of
the unitary book was born, that is, a book in which the
their materiality. Hence the anxiety or the confusion of
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readers who must confront or overcome the disappear-
must transform not only the intellectual categories
er is in a position to be able to read a book read by
Thus in the eighteenth century Blackstone, one of the
ance of the most strongly internalized criteria that en-
he or she has employed to describe, structure, and
the historian and to directly consult the analyzed
lawyers involved in the trials that have contributed
abled them to distinguish, to classify, and to categorize
classify the world of books and of other written mate-
documents him - or herself. The first uses of these new
to the birth of the notion of literary property, justified
different types of discourse.
rials but also his or her most immediate perceptions,
modalities in the production, organization, and ac-
the ownership of the author by stating that a work is
habits, and gestures.
creditation of scholarly discourse show the importance
always the same if, beyond the variations in its ma-
of the transformation of cognitive operations implied
terial forms, what he described as sentiment, style,
by the use of electronic texts.
or language can be recognized. A close connection is
Because of this, the perception of individual works as works becomes more difficult. Reading in front
The second change concerns the order of reasoning,
of the computer screen is generally a discontinuous
if by that we mean the way an argument is organized
reading process that seeks, using keywords or thematic
and the criteria that a reader might employ to agree
A third level of change is linked to the order of
thus established between the unique identity of the
headings, the fragment that the reader wishes to find:
or to disagree with it. For the author, electronic tex-
property, meaning property both in a juridical sense,
texts, always detectable and perpetuated, and the ju-
an article in an electronic periodical, a passage in a
tuality enables the development of demonstrations
that of literary property or of copyright, and in a tex-
ridical and aesthetic regime that attributes ownership
book, or some information in a website. This is done
and arguments following a logic that is no longer
tual sense, that of the characteristics proper to each
to their authors. This is the foundation of the notion
without the identity or coherence of the entire text
necessarily linear or deductive, as is the logic imposed
written text or genre. The electronic text as we know
of copyright that protects a work that is assumed al-
from which the fragment is extracted necessarily
by the inscription, however it is done, of a text onto
it or have known it is a moving, malleable, open text.
ways to be the same regardless of the forms of its pub-
being known. In a certain sense, one might say that
a page. It enables an open, fragmented, relational
The reader can intervene not only in its margins, but
lication. It is obvious that the palimpsestic and poly-
in the digital world all textual entities are like data-
articulation of the reasoning, made possible by hy-
in its very content, by removing, reducing, adding,
phonic texts of digital textuality challenge the very
bases that offer fragments, the reading of which in
pertextual connections. For the reader, the validation
or reworking textual units.
possibility of recognizing such a fundamental identity.
no way implies a perception of the work or the body
or the refutation of an argument can henceforth occur
Unlike the manuscript or printed objects in which
This challenge has led to a reflection that has
of works from which they come.
by consulting texts (but also images, recorded speech,
the reader can add his or her writing only within
begun in the last few years regarding whether or not
Regarding the order of discourse, the electron-
or musical compositions) that are the very object of
the blank spaces of the handwriting or typographical
it is possible in digital textuality to reconstitute a
ic world thus creates a triple rupture: it provides a
the study, provided, or course, that they are accessi-
composition, with the digital world the reader can in-
perpetuated and perceptible identity for texts or,
new technique for inscribing and disseminating the
ble in digital form. If that is the case, the reader is no
tervene within the text itself. The consequences are
at least, for certain texts. This has also led to the
written word, it inspires a new relationship with texts,
longer constrained to trust the author; he or she can
important. They lead to the disappearance of the name
suggestion for a reorganization of the digital world
and it imposes a new form of organization on texts.
in turn carry out all or part of the author’s research.
and the presence of the author because the text is con-
so that authors’ rights, as well as those of their pub-
The originality and the importance of the digital rev-
Here we have a fundamental epistemological mutation
stantly modified by a multiple and collective writing.
lishers, can be protected. This reorganization could
olution must therefore not be underestimated insofar
that profoundly transforms the techniques of proof
One might think that this possibility offers writing
lead to a stronger distinction (even if it is made diffi-
as it forces the contemporary reader to abandon—con-
and the modalities of the construction and validation
the new form Michel Foucault has dreamt of many
cult by the medium, which is a single machine trans-
sciously or not—the various legacies that formed it.
of the discourse of knowledge.
times while imagining an order of discourse in which
mitting different sorts of texts) between, on the one
This new form of textuality no longer uses printing
Let us take an example: In the world of the printed
the individual appropriation of texts would disappear
hand, electronic communication as we know it, which
(at least in its typographic sense), it has nothing to do
word, the history book assumes a pact of trust between
and in which each writer, anonymously, would leave
makes it possible to send or receive open, mobile,
with the libro unitario, and it is foreign to the materi-
the historian and the reader. Notes refer to documents
his or her mark in the layers of an authorless discourse.
free texts, and on the other, electronic publish-
al nature of the codex. It is therefore a revolution that
that the general reader will not be able to obtain.
But the mobility of the open and malleable text
ing, which is the result of editorial work and implies
in the same period in time, and for the first time in
Bibliographical references mention books that the
seriously challenges the criteria and the categories
that the text is fixed, delimited, and closed so that
history, combines a revolution in the technical means
reader, most often, will only be able to read in a li-
that, at least since the eighteenth century, established
its ownership is clearly defined and, by that fact,
for reproducing the written word (as did the invention
brary. Citations are fragments that the historian alone
the author’s ownership of his or her works and con-
so are the rights of the author and the income of the
of the printing press), a revolution in the medium of
chooses to extract, without the reader being able
sequently the publisher’s ownership of the works he
publisher. This discussion has truly crystallized
the written word (like the revolution of the codex), and
to know the complete text out of which they came.
or she has acquired. The recognition of copyright
around the advent of the e-book because this new type
a revolution in the use of and the perception of texts
These three classic means for a proof (notes, references,
(the word appeared in 1704 in the registers of the
of computer product does not allow the transmission,
(as in the various revolutions in reading). This no doubt
and citations) are profoundly modified in the world
StationersCompany) implies that the work can be
copying, modification, or even printing of texts pub-
explains the confusion of the contemporary reader who
of digital textuality from the moment when the read-
firmly identified in its uniqueness and originality.
lished in an electronic form and placed on the market.
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Electronic publishing, which implies the same oper-
the editorial intent and of the intellectual or political
ations as conventional publishing (the preparation
design that governs the publication. In an electronic
of texts, the creation of a catalogue, copyediting) would
form, a reading of the “same” article is organized out
thus be defined in contrast to the free and spontaneous
of the logical architecture that structures the domains,
communication on the digital network.
the themes, the headings, and the keywords. Such
The tension between the free communication of
a reading proceeds in the same way as the analytical
ideas and research and electronic publishing that
language of Wilkins, that is, from an encyclope-
fixes and closes texts is a major issue in the conflicts
dic organization of knowledge that proposes texts
between scientific communities and publishers. In the
to the reader that have no other context than that
last few years, a very heated controversy has opposed
attributed by their belonging to a certain theme.
scientific journals, which have increased the number
This difference must be pointed out at a time when,
of electronic editions protected by passwords that
in all the libraries of the world, people are discussing
prohibit the copying or printing of articles in order
the need to create digital collections, in particular
to maintain a captive market for journals, subscrip-
of newspapers and journals. Digitization projects that
tions to which can cost up to $10,000 or $12,000,
will enable long-distance communication are abso-
and researchers, in particular those in the biological
lutely essential. But they must never lead to the aban-
and cognitive sciences, who demand free access to
donment or, worse, the destruction of printed works
The coming of the digital age is bringing a lot of
the advances in research. Two different logics are
in their original form.
developments to text but it is also leaving behind
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at issue here: the logic of free communication, which
many important aspects that lasted for centuries on
is associated with the ideal of the Enlightenment
this medium. The most obvious one is its physicality,
that upheld the sharing of knowledge, and the logic
which is materialised into pixels in a screen. This is
of publishing based on the notions of an author’s
a big cut of the relationship with the reader, for that
rights and of commercial gain. For reaching a com-
the individual loses the physical reference of the sens-
promise, certain journals, such as Molecular Biology
es during the reading experience, with no definition
of the Cell or Science, have agreed to allow their
of dimensions or notion of exploration. The book has
articles to be freely consulted after a few months or
to preserve the ideia of an unit of closed content and
a year of restricted access.
be able to translate its spatiality to the digital medium.
The example of journals illustrates the profound difference that exists between readings of the “same” text when it is moved from a printed medium to an electronic form. The case of newspapers is particularly illuminating. In the printed newspaper, the meaning the reader gives to each article depends on the presence, on the same page or in the same issue, of other articles or other elements (photographs, cartoons, advertisements, and so on). The reader constructs the meaning of any article by relating it, even unconsciously, to what precedes it, accompa-
taken from: Languages, Books, and Reading from the
nies it, or follows it, and from his or her perception of
Printed Word to the Digital Text by Roger Chartier, 2004
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