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The conceptual foundation for my creative thesis work is based in research into the development of science, particularly the field of cosmology, and its related visual vocabulary. Three interrelated projects encompass my interests in unique artists' books and variable editions, research based projects, codified presentation of data, and universal interconnectedness, or oneness in all things, that was at the heart of medieval cosmology and is embraced by some 21st century subcultures. The thematic timeline of the artwork spans developments in the Early Middle Ages related to astronomy and cosmology and through 20th century guidebooks and NASA's social media accounts. The resulting artwork includes an artist's book, sculptural bookwork, monoprints, and an edition of broadsides.

The Captive Press argues that nineteenth-century Indian captivity narratives escaped from the expectations of the American literary marketplace through manipulations of the material text. With modern methods of production, promotion, and dissemination, captivity narratives dominated the reading public even as Native peoples were forced to submit to governmental encroachments. This study focuses on narratives produced by and about Anglo-American women whose impoverished return from captivity motivated them to write for their livelihood. The narratives of Rachel Parker Plummer, Sarah Larimer, Fanny Kelly, and Abbie Gardner-Sharp were designed to appeal to local readers who were likely to become financial sponsors through direct marketing. Later editions added para-textual material, developed textual content, and introduced illustrations such as wood engravings or photographs to increase marketability for broader audiences. By publishing captivity narratives on state presses and distributing them through regional print networks, nineteenth-century producers maintained the homegrown flavor of the genre while expanding readership beyond local boundaries. This dissertation demonstrates how, with the assistance of editors, illustrators, and publishers, these entrepreneurial women reversed their subject position to hold the popular press captive.

This dissertation is wrapped up in a comparison of book and museum, which raises questions about the visual technology of the printed page itself: a black and white space. Articles and histories on paper production of the nineteenth century stress the necessity of bleaching wood pulp or rags in order to produce “beautiful,” “polished,” “virginal,” “clean” white paper. Bleaching paper to create a normalized, aestheticized whiteness, upon which to craft the cultural capital of the book, largely anticipates the later use of whiteness in the modern art gallery, where whiteness becomes a “neutral” or “objective” or “normal” color upon which to hang visual art or print words. In certain contexts, especially during Reconstruction and later during the Harlem Renaissance, authors saw the black and white contrast of the printed page as a symbol of racial segregation—whiteness and blackness following strictly ordered patterns. This dissertation thus investigates the shifting symbolism of black text on a white visual field between 1880 and 1940. Several of the subjects of my dissertation have been largely overlooked by critics, (Celia Thaxter, Simon Pokagon, Melvin Tolson), although previous studies have examined the way books of modernist poetry become display spaces—the white space of each page like a wall or frame which affords the lyric poem similar attention to modernist visual art, and imitating styles of display made famous by Alfred Stieglitz in his galleries. Poets thus become curators as well as authors. My dissertation expands these studies to include works written before the modernist period (Thaxter and Pokagon), and after it (William Carlos Williams, E. E. Cummings, and Tolson), as well as analyze alternate material technologies of book production that vastly impact the visual experience of reading. Moreover, I also consider the political reasons for these material changes to the book, including racial representation, so that my work simultaneously explores both the aesthetics and politics of printed text.

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This study lays a foundation for the empirical mapping of the material production of Afrikaans fiction from 1990 to 2005. The primary research question, namely, how to map Afrikaans fiction production during this period, has been answered through both descriptive-qualitative and statistical-quantitative empirical research. In the first, contextual descriptive component, qualitative research is used to describe the context within which Afrikaans fiction production takes place. The impact of transformation shifts on the production and producer landscapes are mapped through a description of the publishing system. Within this system, book production is regarded as an institution that has inter-systemic relationships with other sub-systems, including institutional contexts (such as media, cultural, literary, educational and library sub-systems), as well as broader societal contexts (such as political, economic and technological contexts). Transformation shifts in the producer landscape (including the establishment, conglomeration, mergers, take-overs and closures of publishing houses) are described through profiling the relevant producers (including publishing houses and other kinds of producers) who contribute to this landscape. In the second, statistical empirical component, quantitative research is used to sketch the contours of Afrikaans fiction production through the construction of production and producer profiles. On a theoretical level, the study follows a sociological and institutional approach to empirical literary studies. This study has been positioned within the developing field of book and publishing studies, specifically within the parameters of the epistemology of production statistics. Itamar Even-Zohar’s poly-system theory and Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of the field of cultural production form the theoretical framework. Several methodological instruments were developed for the purpose of this study, including a new model of the publishing system, a database of production statistics (the Production Database of Afrikaans Fiction – PDAF), and two typologies of kinds of producers and fiction publications according to which both producer and production categories can be distinguished. The publishing system, the PDAF and the two typologies have been proven useful instruments for the mapping of book production. These instruments will contribute to the fields of book and publishing studies through their application to research on other production categories. The PDAF is a useful resource for measuring the growth and diversity of Afrikaans fiction production. The study concludes that Afrikaans fiction production between 1990 and 2005 was incisively influenced by transformation shifts. Publishing in this field became more challenging in that Afrikaans fiction production had to wean itself from the artificial institutional privilege and substantial state support it had enjoyed and was forced to become economically independent. By 2005, there were far fewer significant producers of Afrikaans fiction in the producer landscape than in 1990. In some production categories, fiction production has shrunk, while, in others, it has grown. Overall, the production profile of Afrikaans fiction has greatly diversified, with Afrikaans fiction appearing in a wide variety of production categories. Afrikaans fiction remains the most diverse and best-developed indigenous tradition of fiction production. The challenge for future case studies is to investigate the relationships between production patterns and specific transformation shifts in the publishing system in terms of specific production categories. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Information Science / unrestricted