The Pleasures of Contamination

by Greetham, David

• ISBN13: 9780253222169
• ISBN10: 0253222168
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-09-17
• Publisher: Indiana Univ Pr

Summary

Through the concept of contamination, David Greetham highlights various ways that one text may invade another, carrying with it a residue of potential meaning. While the focus of this study is on written works, the scope ranges widely over music, politics, art, science, philosophy, religion, and social studies. Greetham argues that this sort of contamination is not only ubiquitous in contemporary culture, but may also be a necessary and fruitful aspect of the human condition. Taking current issues from the CERN Hadron Supercollider and the existence of "yellowcake" uranium in Niger, to the problems of forensics in criminal and civil contexts, and the reconstitution of reality on YouTube, this study addresses some of the most pressing concerns of the 21st century, while showing that basic questions of fact and evidence have always been a part of human interaction.

Author Biography

David Greetham is Distinguished Professor of English, Interactive Technology, and Medieval Studies at the CUNY Graduate School and founder of the interdisciplinary Society for Textual Scholarship. He is author of Theories of the Text and Textual Transgressions: Essays toward the Construction of a Biobibliography.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. ix
Acknowledgments	p. xi
Introduction	p. 1
Truthiness in an Age of Contamination	p. 9
The Contamination of Evidence
The Resistance to Philology	p. 29
Contamination and/of Resistance	p. 43
Textual Forensics	p. 56
Facts, Truefacts, Factoids; or, Why Are They Still Saying Those Things about Epistemology?	p. 87
The Contamination of Text
Who's In, Who's Out: The Cultural Poetics of Archival Exclusion	p. 117
Phylum-Tree-Rhizome	p. 152
Is It Morphin Time?	p. 181
The Contamination of Voice
"'"'What Does It Matter Who Is Speaking,' Someone Said, 'What Does It Matter Who Is Speaking'?"'" (Greetham Version), or "'What Does It Matter Who Is Speaking?': Editorial Recuperation of the Estranged Author" (Eggert Version)	p. 213
Romancing the Text, Medievalizing the Book	p. 246
The Philosophical Discourse of [Textuality]?	p. 267
The Telephone Directory and Dr. Seuss: Scholarly Editing after Feist v. Rural Telephone	p. 284
Epilogue: The Limits of Contamination	p. 310
Works Cited and Consulted	p. 315
General Index	p. 363
Index of Topics	p. 377
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