Body text

Kristina Lundblad

doi:10.54797/tfl.v51i1-2.1723

Abstract

Body text: Typography and the corporeality of literature In one of his fragments, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg explains that German books printed with roman type, instead of the then default gothic type, always give him a feeling that he needs to translate them – evidence, he says, of “the degree to which our concepts are dependent on these signs”. The article elaborates on this thought. It explores the relation between literature, text (abstract and material), and typography, and argues – by means of bibliographical theory, Goethe’s mother, Jean-Luc Nancy, Roman Ingarden, and a diagnostic comparison between hand writing and digital fonts – that the longstanding, idealistic view, within literary criticism and history, of texts’ ‘content’ as independent of books’ and texts’ materiality and form, obstructs scholars’ striving for understand-ing. Text is not only representation; it is also presentation. Text has form, and the form produces meaning.

Highlights

Body text: Typography and the corporeality of literature. In one of his fragments, Georg Christoph Lichtenberg explains that German books printed with roman type, instead of the default gothic type, always give him a feeling that he needs to translate them – evidence, he says, of “the degree to which our concepts are dependent on these signs”
The article elaborates on this thought. It explores the relation between literature, text, and typography, and argues – by means of bibliographical theory, Goethe’s mother, Jean-Luc Nancy, Roman Ingarden, and a diagnostic comparison between hand writing and digital fonts – that the longstanding, idealistic view, within literary criticism and history, of texts’ ‘content’ as independent of books’ and texts’ materiality and form, obstructs scholars’ striving for understanding
Att formen också hindrar tillgången till det abstrakta verket låter Lichtenberg förstå när han talar om behovet av ”översättning” som ett ”bevis för i hur hög grad våra begrepp är avhängiga av dessa tecken”.78 Min artikel kan ses som en fotnot till Lichtenbergs fragment

Summary

Introduction

Ska de från lägre klasser uteslutas från allt gott”, undrar hon, och till det goda hör sonens, Goethes, verk.60 ”Vore dina skrifter tryckta med de olycksaliga aristokraterna [antikvastilen] skulle de i all sin förträfflighet inte blivit så allmänt spridda”, förklarar hon för honom.[61] Vid denna tidpunkt var Goethe sedan länge en av den tyska kulturens mest berömda personer, inom och utom den tyskspråkiga sfären.

Results

Conclusion