Notes on the Materiality and Spirituality of Books and their Being in the World

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Published: Dec 10, 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.47743/lincu-2020-2-0181
Keywords:
the book as object materiality aesthetic dimension ontological status cultural and spiritual presence

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Dana Janeta Bădulescu
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania
Cristina Gavriluță
Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania

Abstract

As an object, the book has a material condition. On the surface, it is a collection of printed leaves held between two covers. The graphics, colours and design are aspects partaking of its aesthetic dimension. However, beyond this materiality, with all its aesthetic qualities, the book has an intrinsic capacity of undergoing changes in its status. Gabriel Liiceanu, a Romanian philosopher, argues that the book is an imploring object. It begs to be opened, read, and thus brought to life. Therefore, the book is an object with a special fate, which necessarily depends on the whims and moods of the Reader who, by merely opening and reading it, changes its ontological status, breathes life onto it and saves it from an improper state of being, as Liiceanu argues. The book’s status as an object is exceptional in this situation. As an object, the book is a treasure trove. The big drama of any book is that of being sentenced to a life in prison between its covers, while its big fortune is to become a spiritual and cultural presence in the mind and soul of the Reader.

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How to Cite
Bădulescu, D. J., and C. Gavriluță. “Notes on the Materiality and Spirituality of Books and Their Being in the World”. Linguaculture, vol. 11, no. 2, Dec. 2020, pp. 163-74, doi:10.47743/lincu-2020-2-0181.
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Vol. 11 No. 2 (2020)
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Articles
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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Author Biographies

Dana Janeta Bădulescu, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania

Dana Bădulescu teaches modernist and postmodernist British and American literature, basic elements of literary theory and critical thinking, transculturalism and translations, at ”Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi. She has published a series of articles on modernism and postmodernism, key modernist and postmodernist writers and texts. In December 2014, she formed a national research network which joined ISCH COST Action IS 1404 "Evolution of reading in the age of digitisation (E-READ)," which focused her research on books and reading, an interest she has been keen on pursuing in a series of articles on this topic written and published in the last six years.

Cristina Gavriluță, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, Romania

Cristina Gavriluţă teaches at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social and Political Sciences, ”Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iaşi. She was a doctoral and postdoctoral grantee doing her research in France (Sorbonne, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales) and Italy (”G. D’Anunzio” University). Her research interests are: social and cultural anthropology, deviance sociology, the sociology of social change, ethnology. She coordinates and she is also a member of the research team of several grants such as: Evolution of Reading in the Age of Digitisation (E-READ); Children of Prisoners, Interventions & Mitigations to Strengthen Mental Health, Leaders of Tomorrow, Voters of Tomorrow: Together for a Better Politics. She has authored many studies and articles in proceedings and in prestigious magazines, and she coordinated several volumes on topical issues: Cărțile care ne dau aripi / The Books that Make Us Fly (2019), Sociologia la Alma Mater Iasiensis. In honorem profesor Vasile Miftode (2017), Interdisciplinary Approaches to Social Sciences (2013), Human Trafficking. Secularization and Public Policy Intervention (2013). She is also the single author of five volumes: Negativul cotidianului / The Negative of the Everyday ( 2017), The Everyday Sacred. Symbols, Rituals, Mythologies (2013), Socioantropologia fenomenelor divinatorii / The Socioanthropology of Divination (2008), Sacrul şi californizarea culturii / The Sacred and the Californisation of Culture (2008), Socioantropologia fenomenului religios / The Socioanthropology of the Religious Phenomenon (2003).

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