Description
Book SynopsisThis book examines how one aspect of the social and technological situation of literature-namely, the postal system as a mode of transmission-determined how literature was produced and what was produced within literature.
Trade Review"This will be important reading for anyone interested in the enormous influence of communication systems on literature and philosophy."—
ChoiceTable of ContentsList of tables and figures Introduction 1. An epoch of the postal system Part I. The Logistics of the Poet's Dream: 2. On time (registered letterI) 3. Gellert's coup: folding the private letter 4. Post day in Wahlheim 5. Set the controls for the heart of the night 6. Postage 7. Goethe's postal empire 8. The timbre of a calling (attunement) 9. The logistics of the poet's dream: kleist Part II. On The Way To New Empires 1840-1900: 10. System time (registered letter II) 11. Postage one penny: Rowland Hill's post office reform 12. The standards of writing 13. Hill/Babbage/Bentham: the mechanical alliance of 1827 14. Mail in 1855: a misuse of love letters 15. The worl postal system, or the end of the world 16. The postcard 17. The telegraph: land and sea 18. The virgin machine Part III. Mail Beyond Human Communication: 19. Typewriter and carbon paper 20. The poet's matter in extremis 21. Mail, or the impossibility of writting letters 22. In the presence of noise Notes Bibliography.
