PRINT TEXT

Like the solitary reader, the print text exists in isolation as a bound volume. Even on a book shelf its existence is solitary, since it defines its own space separate from other texts. Print-text is associated with permanence, durability, and authorship. Before the invention of printing press, manuscripts were handcopied by scribes. Copying was a laborious process and it was almost impossible to get exactly similar copies of the original manuscripts. Thus, a number of variant manuscripts would be in cir culation. Due to limited number of copies, each manuscript was unique and had to be guarded in public places, usually chained to bookshelves, or stowed away in vaults and other safe places, so it was not lost or destroyed. The distinction that we make now between the original and the copy came into existence with the rise of the print culture. Printing made it possible for the mass production of identical copies which could be distributed widely amongst people separated geographically as well as historica lly. Since thousands of copies of the same text could be available to people geographically or historically separated, it gave rise to a mode of scholarship that values original texts in their purity. In the earlier scribal and partially oral cultures, th e concept of authorship was very different and did not have the same meaning that it has nowadays. In the East, for example, authors of preprint era attributed their work either to their teachers or they described them as a revelation. In the commentaries of the ancient texts, too, the focus is on the tradition rather than on the authors who wrote these works. The origin of these ancient traditions is usually associated with nebulous historical or mythical figures. When one studies any corpus of such text s along with the commentaries, one tends to think more in terms of collective authorship instead of an individual author.

The society based on print culture relies on individual acts of reading which promote notions of individuality, originality, and creativity. Printing thus has given rise to a different concept of authorship--a particular work has come to be associated wi th a particular author who made his/her living based on the popularity of the works he/she produced. Printing not only made possible mass multiplication of the manuscript, it also created a fixed personality for the author in that a narrative was created through printed biographical or autobiographical materials. This autobiographical/biographical narrative came to be associated with the creator of a particular set of works. Thereby, the writers had incentive to keep themselves engaged in the lonely task of writing because usually not only their subsistence was dependent on it, but also their personal fame. Printed book assured the writer's immortality. Notions of authorship, individuality, as well as creativity have been challenged in recent years by the orists who note that each text is permeated with other texts which is best illustrated by hypertext when the reader visually sees how each text already contains within it other texts.

Printing also dramatically changed the mode of transmission of knowledge. In a predominantly oral culture, knowledge of any kind was transmitted through the spoken word so that the student had to be physically present in order to learn from the teacher. P rinting brought about a revolutionary change in the mode of learning as well as teaching itself. The general public desiring to learn did not have to be necessarily in a school or university setting or spend years in the vicinity of the teacher. Those desiring to learn could in fact learn independently by reading books. Access to books also promoted a new type of readership which was recreational in nature and started the era of pulp books. Also within the academic institutions, mode of learning was slowly transformed in that elab orate memorization was not required since students could refer to books anytime.