Course

The course gives an introduction to the perspectives of a sociology of the book, through discussions of the interplay of print culture and its products with technology, economy and politics at certain points in history. Its first part, Graphic Communication Structures, deals with differences between oral, script and print cultures, and shifts from handicrafts to industrial processes and further to digitalisation of the book market. The second part, Effects of Graphic Design, analyzes the development of graphic design from the Renaissance to our time, in the field of books as well as in commerce and advertising.