You need to select one print publication that was first published before the year 2000. You need to examine the publication of that work historically and anthropologically. That means examining the historical, commercial and cultural context of the original publication.Ideally the ‘publication’ you select should be a classic work that has some claim to significance. Your ‘publication’ could be a novel, a work of science, a textbook, a comic, a magazine, an academic periodical, a newspaper, or a work of reference such as a dictionary or encyclopedia. You could, if you wished, select an atlas, a religious work, a cookbook, or a picture book, album or anthology aimed at children. The choice is yours.The publication need not be a work in the English language (although your essay must be written in English, obviously).Your publication could have been originally published at any time between 1455 and the year 2000. Your essay should spend some time looking at how the work was originally published to place it in its historical and cultural context. You are encouraged to look at the intellectual, social and commercial context of the time, and to look at how the publication might either be a product of its time (and place of publication) but also how it might have been revolutionary/original/pathbreaking in some way. Explain why the publication was significant at the time, and why it is significant looking back.It’s a good idea to also compare how the work was originally/first published with a few examples of how it was updated in key moments subsequently, or how it was re-published in subsequent years for different audiences. Also, think about the ‘materiality’ of the publication, and how that ‘materiality’4might be of its time. Consider aspects of design, aesthetics, marketing, pricing and business and distribution models. Think about the readerships and intended markets for your publication, and what the intellectual, cultural and commercial legacy of the publication might be.If you want to look at a ‘work’ that was originally published in manuscript form before the 1450s as a scroll or codex (such as the Bible, for instance, or the I Ching) you can, but you need also to look at how a previously manuscript work was first printed and distributed by a publisher, and how it has come to be reprinted and re-invented in subsequent years.Remember, this is NOT a literature essay, it is, rather, a publishing essay, and should draw much more on history, anthropology and sociology than from literature studies. So your essay should NOT focus overly on literary criticism or exploring the contents and narratives within the text. Rather, you are looking at publishing as historically situated ‘material culture’. You should be looking at how authors, publishers, readers and markets are historically, commercially and culturally situated. You should also consider the historical significance and cultural impact of your publication, and how the renown of the publication might have shaped later editions / reprints.The essay should look predominantly at print. You can, in passing, make a brief note of how your publication has been digitally published since 2000 in various formats, but this should only be a very small part of your essay. The great majority of your essay needs to be focused on the publishing story before the year 2000, with particular focus on the original print publication.The subheadings are the ones I provided and don’t change anything I wrote in section 1, you can add to it though after what I wrote.
