The article I co-wrote with Pam Lach, my co-Director of SDSU’s Digital Humanities Initiative, “Digital Infrastructures: People, Place, and Passion, a Case Study of SDSU” was just published in the most recent volume of the esteemed series Debates in DH.
I was super honored by this article, as it really pushed the impacts of my work. I also deeply enjoyed the interview-turned-conversation with the author.
The article takes up the interesting question: “Bookishness is a part of digital culture, but how is bookishness best reflected in readers and the publishing industry?”
Deeply grateful that my book received the award for literary criticism from my own beloved academic community; even better that the award bears the name of my mentor & to top it off— I was in Disneyland when the award was announced! So, all good here!
Twenty-first-century culture is obsessed with books. In a time when many voices have joined to predict the death of print, books continue to resurface in new and unexpected ways. From the proliferation of “shelfies” to Jane Austen–themed leggings and from decorative pillows printed with beloved book covers to bookwork sculptures exhibited in prestigious collections, books are everywhere and are not just for reading. Writers have caught up with this trend: many contemporary novels depict books as central characters or fetishize paper and print thematically and formally.
In Bookishness, Jessica Pressman examines the new status of the book as object and symbol. She explores the rise of “bookishness” as an identity and an aesthetic strategy that proliferates from store-window décor to experimental writing. Ranging from literature to kitsch objects, stop-motion animation films to book design, Pressman considers the multivalent meanings of books in contemporary culture. Books can represent shelter from—or a weapon against—the dangers of the digital; they can act as memorials and express a sense of loss. Examining the works of writers such as Jonathan Safran Foer, Jennifer Egan, Mark Z. Danielewski, and Leanne Shapton, Pressman illuminates the status of the book as a fetish object and its significance for understanding contemporary fakery. Bringing together media studies, book history, and literary criticism, Bookishness explains how books still give meaning to our lives in a digital age.
According to the prize jury:
“Bookishness provides a provocative look at the status of the book in the post-digital age. Pressman’s formulation of “bookishness” offers a compelling heuristic for considering the role of the overdetermining power of the book amidst the media shifts of the 21st century. Rather than sequestering electronic literature, Bookishness integrates a discussion of the digital with print-based texts, ushering in a new moment in e-lit scholarship in expertly crafted prose.”
Jessica Pressman is associate professor of English and comparative literature at San Diego State University, where she cofounded the Digital Humanities Initiative. Pressman previously won the N. Katherine Hayles award forcoauthor of Reading “Project”: A Collaborative Analysis of William Poundstone’s “Project for Tachistoscope {Bottomless Pit}” (2015), which she co-authored. She is the author of Digital Modernism: Making It New in New Media (2014) and coeditor of Comparative Textual Media: Transforming the Humanities in the Postprint Era (2013) and Book Presence in a Digital Age (2018).
I had a lovely conversation with Richard Davies of the AbeBooks podcast “Behind the Bookshelves” about Bookishness. The series description: “We tell the stories behind books and the people who love them.” Definitely the right place for me! https://abebooks.com/podcast
