How and Why Books Matter - Essays on the Social Function of Iconic Texts - James W Watts

How and Why Books Matter - Essays on the Social Function of Iconic Texts - James W Watts

Mass Literacy and Scholarly Expertise

How and Why Books Matter - Essays on the Social Function of Iconic Texts - James W Watts

James W Watts [+-]
Syracuse University
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James W. Watts is Professor of Religion at Syracuse University. His publications include How and Why Books Matter: Essays on the Social Function of Iconic Texts (Equinox, 2019) and Understanding the Bible as a Scripture in History Culture and Religion (Wiley, 2021).

Description

The spread of literacy did not displace the social prestige of scribal expertise that was established in antiquity. The every-growing number and complexity of texts account for the continuing cultural authority of scholarly expertise. The tension between expert and non-specialist uses of texts, however, also reinforced scholars’ avoidance of the subject of iconic books and texts while drawing constant attention to semantic interpretation instead. Scholarly ignorance about iconic texts allows us to insist that a text’s real meaning lies in its semantic interpretation alone, which we are the experts at elucidating. But many of our texts mediate power and legitimacy in ways that semantic interpretation alone cannot understand, much less control.

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Citation

Watts, James. Mass Literacy and Scholarly Expertise. How and Why Books Matter - Essays on the Social Function of Iconic Texts. Equinox eBooks Publishing, United Kingdom. p. 161-166 Jun 2019. ISBN 9781781797686. https://www.equinoxpub.com/home/view-chapter/?id=35890. Date accessed: 07 Nov 2024 doi: 10.1558/equinox.35890. Jun 2019

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