UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, FACULTY OF ENGLISH
10-11 SEPTEMBER 2018
UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE CENTRE FOR MATERIAL TEXTS AND THE WRITING BRITAIN CONFERENCE SERIES
The introduction of paper to the West was a
major technological innovation that transformed the ways in which texts
of all kinds were transmitted. Having proved itself over many centuries
as the intellectual fabric of Asian and Middle
Eastern societies, the medium continued to demonstrate an extraordinary
capacity for adaptation and diversification when it arrived in Europe.
The stuff of playing cards, votive offerings and amulets, packaging and
toilet tissue, wall-coverings and quilt-linings,
paper was also crucial to the development of quotidian, democratized
literacies and to the unfurling of national bureaucracies and capitalist
economies. Light (in a single sheet) yet heavy (in a massive folio),
durable yet fragile and throwaway, paper’s ability
to combine contrary qualities and its willingness to enter into
alliance with other substances and technologies helped it seep into
every sphere of daily life. Paper’s smooth surface masked fundamental
changes in substance — in particular the move from the
rag-paper of the late medieval and early modern periods to the
wood-pulp paper of modernity. Its protean surface facilitated deep
continuities and extraordinary ruptures in European cultural history.
A spate of recent publications has demonstrated
the urgency of getting to grips with paper, at a turning-point in our
relations with it. The aim of "Paper-stuff" is to meet this urgency. It
will bring together experts in the field, theorists
of material culture and representatives of a variety of disciplines
with a stake in the subject, so as to understand paper’s empire in the
West. "Paper-stuff" will also take stock of rapidly evolving
technologies available for the analysis of paper.
Plenary speakers:
Professor Pádraig Ó Macháin (University College Cork) Linda Toigo (paper artist)
For the draft programme, see
To register, visit
For further information please contact one of the organisers:
Dr Orietta Da Rold (od245@cam.ac.uk)
Dr Jason Scott-Warren (jes1003@cam.ac.uk)
Sponsor: The British Academy
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