The Gutenberg Galaxy

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The Gutenberg Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man is a book by Marshall McLuhan that was first published in 1962; the German translation appeared in 1968 under the title Die Gutenberg-Galaxis. The end of the book age at Econ Verlag , Munich.

McLuhan coined in the band, the terms of the global village (global village) , the Gutenberg Galaxy (Gutenberg Galaxy) and proposed a mediengenealogische division of human history into four eras ( orality , literacy , Gutenberg Galaxy and electronic age ). In The Gutenberg Galaxy , McLuhan mainly analyzed the effects of various communication media and technologies on European culture and human consciousness. For example, the typographic culture (see Typographeum ) pushed the diversity of sensory perceptions into the background by visually "homogenizing" perception:

"This kind of distortion or reduction of our entire sensory experience to the realm of a single sense tends to be the effect of typography on the arts and science as well as on human perception."

- German edition 1995, p. 157

According to his argument, the establishment of the printing press brought about the emergence of nationalism , dualism , the dominance of rationalism , the automation of scientific research, as well as the unification and standardization of cultures and the alienation of individuals.

reception

McLuhan's writings were subject to a kind of reception block in Germany for years , but developed even more far-reaching effects in the 1990s. Media scholars such as Friedrich Kittler and Norbert Bolz took up parts of McLuhan's argumentation and integrated them into their own works; Kittler describes the effects of the letterpress as an alphabetical monopoly and continues its development in writing systems 1800/1900 .

With The Book Printing in the Early Modern Era , Michael Giesecke also follows up on McLuhan's arguments, but systematizes his theses and underpins them with a wealth of historical case studies.

See also

Other publications by McLuhan:

Book editions

Web links