The Emerging Contours of the Medium

In this extensive and intricate book, which explores the complex and still inadequately explored connections between “literature” and “media,” numerous critical historical, philosophical, cybernetic and semiotic intersections are brought to the forefront. The significant volume examines and critiques various theoretical stances, with the authors delving deeply into historical contexts to understand the reasons behind the lack of fruitful dialogues between literary studies and media theory. Rather than providing a definitive conclusion to the issue, the authors instead lay the groundwork for a potential medial literary theory to emerge: a new “Prague” school of intermediality, or literary media theory, sees the light of day. * Jørgen Bruhn, Professor in the Department of Film and Literature, Linnaeus University, Sweden *
Emerging Contours of the Medium is an event in two disciplines, media studies and literary studies. The authors of this volume attempt nothing less than a conceptual integration of the media concept into the study of literature, and literature into the study of media. The problem of literature’s status as a medium and relation to other media has long been neglected, but this brilliant collective of Czech scholars has in one volume brought us far along the road toward a new understanding of the relation between literature and the media system. The individual essays range broadly across the domains of media studies and literary scholarship, creating nothing less than a conversation among European and Anglo-American theorists that did not exist before. For scholars of the English-speaking world, Contours of the Emerging Medium gives us access to profound scholarship in the Czech language that the Anglo-American academy needs to know. A particular benefit of the book is its reminder also of the Prague School’s great historical contributions to literary and media theory. This volume of essays shows that the Prague School is thriving today and has much to teach us. * John Guillory, Julius Silver Professor of English, New York University, USA *
The book’s careful historiographic approach is evident in its logical structure, demonstrating the development of intermedial study and the concept of media. The collection provides a very welcome insight into the complex relationship between intermedial studies, literature, and their respective fields … [it] is an essential contribution to scholars working at the intersection of literature, philosophy, art, adaptation studies, and media studies. * Slovo a Slovesnost *