Course description
We live in a moment of rapid changes in the ways we communicate. As our writing becomes ever more digitaland paradoxically both more ephemeral and more durablethe attitudes and tools we have for preserving our culture seem more complex and fluid. This course studies how written languagetexttravels through time and across media. We ask questions including, how good are texts for capturing, transmitting, and preserving human experience? How have texts come down to us from the distant past? How do we ensure that what we write today will survive into the future? As we investigate contemporary approaches to cultural preservation, we consider how pre-modern European cultures transmitted and transformed texts, and created institutions that we still rely on today, including museums, libraries, and archives. Each week students observe or apply methods of preservation, restoration, destruction, translation, and transmission in an attempt to preserve a personal artifact. We also read works of literature that reflect on questions of durability, ephemerality, and written memory. Students work through weekly assignments toward a final project focused on studying, curating, and preserving a textual source of their choice.
