Presenter Information

EMW 2009

Description

The sixth Early Modern Workshop will focus on the topic of "Reading across Cultures: The Jewish Book and Its Readers in the Early Modern Period." The workshop was held at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University from Sunday, August 23, 2009 and to Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

The workshop opened a discussion of the culture of reading in Jewish society, as well as of the reading of Jewish books in Christian society, during a period of rapid cultural transformation. What was a "Jewish" book, one participant asked? What were the different or parallel developments within Jewish society, with its very different institutions and conventions of learning? How did print and access to books affect readers? Did it facilitate new reading communities? Did it modify existing reading traditions? And did it affect the ways of reading? How did authorities seek to control or prevent access to new texts, and how did these measures affect readers?

These questions were addressed from a variety of approaches: examining the role publishers had in imagining and developing readers (Berger, Rosman) and the information paratexts include (Shear); influence of censorship both external and internal (Cooperman, Francesconi); access to new, or old, texts and development of new ways of reading (Dweck, Bodian); organization of knowledge at the time of the "overload of information" (Bar Levav); the use of "Jewish" books by Christians (Sutcliffe); Christian texts adapted for Jewish readers (Maciejko, von Bernuth).

Audio and video of the workshop are available with each presentation and on iTunesU

Event Website

http://wesscholar.wesleyan.edu/emw/emw2009/

Start Date

23-8-2009 5:00 PM

End Date

25-8-2009 5:00 PM

Location

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, Harvard University

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Aug 23rd, 5:00 PM Aug 25th, 5:00 PM

EMW 2009: Reading across Cultures: The Jewish Book and Its Readers in the Early Modern Period

Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies, Harvard University

The sixth Early Modern Workshop will focus on the topic of "Reading across Cultures: The Jewish Book and Its Readers in the Early Modern Period." The workshop was held at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Studies at Harvard University from Sunday, August 23, 2009 and to Tuesday, August 25, 2009.

The workshop opened a discussion of the culture of reading in Jewish society, as well as of the reading of Jewish books in Christian society, during a period of rapid cultural transformation. What was a "Jewish" book, one participant asked? What were the different or parallel developments within Jewish society, with its very different institutions and conventions of learning? How did print and access to books affect readers? Did it facilitate new reading communities? Did it modify existing reading traditions? And did it affect the ways of reading? How did authorities seek to control or prevent access to new texts, and how did these measures affect readers?

These questions were addressed from a variety of approaches: examining the role publishers had in imagining and developing readers (Berger, Rosman) and the information paratexts include (Shear); influence of censorship both external and internal (Cooperman, Francesconi); access to new, or old, texts and development of new ways of reading (Dweck, Bodian); organization of knowledge at the time of the "overload of information" (Bar Levav); the use of "Jewish" books by Christians (Sutcliffe); Christian texts adapted for Jewish readers (Maciejko, von Bernuth).

Audio and video of the workshop are available with each presentation and on iTunesU

https://research.library.fordham.edu/emw/emw2009/emw2009/1