Print Culture and the Modern World.

The earliest kind of print technology was developed in China, Japan and Korea.

In China, books were printed by rubbing paper against the inked surface of woodblocks.

First Printed Books

Print in China

In the 17th Century, the use of print diversified in China because of booming urban culture.

Print In Japan

Buddhist missionaries from China introduced hand printing technology into Japan.

The oldest Japanese book printed is the Buddhist ‘Diamond Sutra’.

Increase in Demand for Book

Demand for Books increased because

1. Book fairs were held at different places.

2. Production of handwritten manuscripts was also organised in New ways to meet the expanded demand.

3. Scribes or Skilled hand writers were no longer solely employed by wealthy or influential patrons but increasingly by booksellers.

The Print Revolution and its Impact.

1. The time and labour required to produce each book came down.

2. The printing press, a new reading public emerged. Reduced the cost of books, now a reading public came into being.

3. Knowledge was transferred orally. Before the age of print books were not only expensive but they could not be produced in sufficient numbers.

4. But the transition was not so simple. Books could be read only by the literate and the rates of literacy in most European crematories were very low, Oral culture thus entered print and printed material was orally transmitted. And the public hearing and reading became intermingled.

Religious Debates and the fear of Print.

1. Print created the possibility of the wide circulation of ideas.

2. Through the printed message, they could persuade people to think differently and introduced a new world of debate and discussion.This has significance in the different sphere of life.

3. Many were apprehensive of the effects that the easier access to the printed world and the wider circulation of books, could have on people’s minds.

4. If that happened the authority of ‘valuable’ literature would be destroyed, expressed by religious authorities and monarchs, as well as many writers and artists, achievement of religion areas of Martin Luther.

5. A new intellectual atmosphere and helped spread the new ideas that led to the reformation.

Print culture and the French Revolution:

1. Print the popularised ideas of the Enlightenment thinkers. Collectively, their writings provided a critical commentary or tradition, superstition and despotism.

2. Print created a new culture of dialogue and debate. All values, forms and institutions were re-evaluated and discussed by a public that had become aware of the power of reason.

3. 1780’s there was an outpouring of literature that mocked the royalty and criticised their morality. In the process, it raised questions about the existing social order.

4. The print helps the spread of ideas. People did not read only one kind of literature. If they read the ideas of Voltaire and Rousseau, They were also exposed to monarchic and church propaganda.

5. Print did not directly shape their minds, but it did open up the possibility of thinking differently.

The Nineteenth Century (Women)

1. As primary education became compulsory from the late nineteenth century. A large number of new readers were especially women.

2. Women became important as readers as well as writers. Penny magazines were especially meant for women, as were manuals teaching proper behaviour and housekeeping.

3. In the nineteenth century, lending libraries in England, lower middle-class people. Sometimes self-educated working class people wrote for themselves. Women were seen as important readers. Some of the best-known novelists were women: Jane Austin, the Bronte sisters, George Eliot their writings became important in defining a new type of woman.

Printing In India

1. The printing press came to India with Portuguese Missionaries in mid 16th century.

2. The first Tamil Book printed in Cochin in 1579 BC.

3. Weekly Magzine ‘Bengal Gazette’ started publication in 1780 BC.

4. First printed edition of Ramcharitmanas of Tulsidas came out in Calcutta in 1810 BC.

5. Many newspapers in various languages started publication in 1821-22 BC.

6. Hindi Printing began seriously in 1870 BC.

Conclusion

It is difficult to imagine the world without printed matter.
In fact, print shaped our contemporary world.
Social lives and cultures changed with the coming of Print.