Books at Bristol, Faculty of Arts, University of Bristol

Call for Papers: The Beginning of the Book

Friday 18 March 2016, 11-5pm

When we open a book it is likely that we will have to leaf through several pages before arriving at the authorial text – what we are conditioned to think of as the ‘text proper’. How often do we stop to read and reflect on the preliminary matter which occupies the space between the cover and the text we have opened the book to read? What kind of material is included in the frontmatter, and what purpose does it serve? How does the inclusion of paratextual support matter reflect developments in the evolution of the codex and how much does it lead developments in book design and our conception of literary history?

This one-day conference aims to bring together scholars working within different historical periods (from the beginnings of the codex to the present) and with different languages and genres in order to explore continuities and variance in the development of the codex, focusing on the preliminary pages which make up a book object. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• -          the ordering and placement of preliminary paratexts
  
• -          the authorship of prefatory paratexts
  
• -          the contribution made by book design to distinctions between prefatory paratext and the main body of the text
  
• -          the role and function of prefatory paratexts in the sequence of a book’s manufacture
  
• -          the relationship between frontmatter and backmatter
  
• -          the conceptual significance of beginnings, openings, introductions etc
  
• -          the relationship between editorial design and reading practice
  

Please send proposals for 20-minute papers of no more than 300 words to Rhiannon Daniels ([log in to unmask]) and Jennifer Batt ([log in to unmask]) by Monday 15 February. Please share the CFP with anyone you think might be interested, including postgraduates. We are particularly keen to welcome papers from colleagues in the GW4 consortium (Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, and Exeter).

Books at Bristol (https://booksatbristol.wordpress.com) represents a group of scholars drawn from the Faculty of Arts at the University of Bristol with interests in the many and various aspects of book culture. We embrace a broad understanding of the material text from the ancient world through to the digital age (including scrolls, papyri, magazines, newspapers, screens etc.), encompassing the network of agents involved in book production and dissemination, as well as readers and users of books. Our research areas include the history of publishing and publishers, editing, manuscript and print cultures, reading history, reception, materiality, paratexts, book collecting and collections, miscellanies, and artists’ books.