The Gutenberg Galaxy
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."
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
- The Gutenberg Galaxy. The Making of Typographic Man . London 1962; University of Toronto Press, Toronto 2002, ISBN 0-8020-6041-2 .
- The Gutenberg Galaxy. The end of the book age . Econ, Düsseldorf 1968; Addison-Wesley, Bonn 1995, ISBN 3-89319-999-3 .
Web links
- Marshall McLuhan and The Gutenberg Galaxy (English)
- 4 epochs of history (English)