The Author’s Hand. A Literary History of Handwriting
We are living in an age when accelerating technological development seems to render handwriting and penmanship superfluous or obsolete. Handwriting, however, has had a deep historical impact that the advent of digital media allows us to analyze anew. The purpose of this project is to explore the literary history of writing by hand from a media historical perspective. The role of handwriting is more than a mere direct channel between author and book, more than only an ornamental or social function. An additional point of departure for this project is that handwriting is a medium that, in line with the logic of digital media of today, has inherent regulatory mechanisms that produce its output as well as its users. The project consists of six case studies, where self-reflective literary texts are analyzed from the point of view of the material conditions that shaped them. From Horace to Melville, from Erasmus to Strindberg, writing by hand is associated with separate “discourse networks,” where historically different technical, technological and institutional conditions affect how the hand that holds the pen moves across the paper. The inquiry, the first of its kind, will thus be able to highlight how writing by hand has shaped its writers as well as their output in a way that has not yet been explored by researchers.
Final report
Background to the project
In June 2021, I was awarded a 12-month RJ Sabbatical for the project "The Author's Hand. A Literary History of Handwriting" (SAB21-0020), which also included a month-long stay at the research program Geschichte und Theorien der Kulturtechniken at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar under the supervision of Bernhard Siegert. The project has resulted in a monograph, several guest lectures and research information in the form of contributions to a number of public media.
Results of the project
The main aim of the project has been to complete a monograph that examines writing by hand from a media and literary history perspective. The book manuscript has been accepted for publication by Glänta förlag, and publication in print and open access on the web will take place during the winter of 2024/2025.
The general premise of the project was that through a series of technological innovations - with digitization as the most recent historical example - handwriting has been simultaneously decentered and re-emphasized: decentered by appearing less and less central to document-producing professions and educational institutions, emphasized by the same technological innovations today making handwriting visible as a medium among other media. Paradoxically, handwriting has become both less and more prominent as digitalization has progressed. But what is the significance of this finding? The question prompted theoretical work in which media theoretical models were tested against the empirical nature of handwriting. A first result of the project was thus the elaboration of what could be called a media theory of handwriting, which draws attention to four interacting variables: the body or the actual, physical hand that writes; the practice or the psychomotor routine and social convention that makes it possible to instrumentalize the hand; the script or the varying writing systems and historical hand styles that the hand realizes; the technology or the material and historically changing writing devices and substrates. These variables further interact in a concrete functional context - like other media, handwriting is designed to store, process and transmit data. A concept derived from German cultural technique research and media theory, 'discourse network', clarifies this relationship. But what are the analytical consequences of this theorization? The question forces a methodological reflection, and a second outcome of the project was thus the development of a method for analyzing the handwriting as a medium. One assumption in the project was that such an analysis should be based on literary texts, since these, unlike other types of texts, thematize their creation. In the so-called "scenes of writing" that literary studies have traditionally treated as the author's metapoetic play with his means of expression, there is an opportunity to read the material conditions of possibility of literature. Since there is no particular 'literary' writing by hand, the writing scenes of the literary texts can be seen as representative of handwriting as such in a certain environment and period (i.e. a historical discourse network system). The six case studies of the study make it clear that this assumption was productive. The results of these studies are relatively extensive and cannot be reproduced here in all their historical detail, but the basic insights into the medium of handwriting that the project yields can be summarized in the following points:
1) Technological materiality determines what can be written, but also who is capable of writing. Technologically complex writing systems tend to inhibit the production of writing and lead to the separation of writing and composition. Writing becomes a craft, carried out by specific craftsmen ("scribes"), while composition is reserved for authors who do not write themselves.
2) The design of the writing system and style determines what and how much can be written. Complex writing systems and styles seem to be inversely related to the quantitative outcome and societal distribution of writing skills.
3) The design of the educational system's practices also has an impact on the social distribution of handwriting, but also on its social status. Violent pedagogical practices tend to negatively affect the latter.
4) The body is precarious in any writing system based on handwriting. Physical reactions and ailments are frequent, and they are usually causally linked to any of points 1-3 above.
To summarize, the case studies of the the project make it clear that handwriting has been a historically successful medium, not because of its specific prerogatives but in spite of them. At the same time, it is evident how handwriting has been constrained at every stage of its historical realization by the variables that shape it: each discourse network tends to reward a certain type of outcome while making others impossible. However, no general principle for this recurrent but changing 'unwritability' can be discerned; on the contrary, in this respect the medium of handwriting seems to be characterized by a fundamental historical contingency.
The study "The Author's Hand" is organized over six chapters plus introduction and conclusion. The outline is historically based, but the chapters are separate case studies and there has been no ambition to analyze the recurring changes of the the medium of handwriting in terms of a 'historical development'. Instead, the changes (at the levels of practices or technologies) have been deliberately exploited to study the medium in all its historical diversity. The following chapters are included:
1. 'Ancient hands'. The chapter examines the transition of handwriting from a storage medium to a production medium in Greek and Roman antiquity. It also studies the consequences of the transition from alphabetic to stenographic writing during the Roman Principate.
2. 'Writing in the flesh'. This chapter examines the position of manuscripts and the status of writing in the monasteries of early medieval Western Europe. The focus is on how the technological complexity of the monastic writing system reinforces the separation between composition and writing that emerged in late antiquity.
3. 'The renaissance of the pen'. The chapter examines how clerical writers re-developed the ability to write themselves at the historical turning point when cathedral schools and universities put the old monastic educational monopoly under pressure. The chapter also looks at how medieval women acquired writing skills.
4. 'The Kingdom of the Scribes'. This chapter examines the first national literacy campaign in Europe, which took place in Sweden in the late 17th century. It focuses on the writing practices that emerged as a result of the increased need to document the campaign.
5. ’The Red Manuscript’. The chapter examines the transformation of handwriting from a set of functionally defined styles to a marker of individuality in the early 19th century. It also examines the changing status of the autograph and its transformation from an unremarkable artifact to a desirable fetish.
6. ’The end of writing'. The chapter examines the transition from quill to steel pen during the industrialization of the 19th century. The changes brought about by the new technology - increased efficiency but also ergonomic problems - are examined in literature's portrayal of the new urban proletariat: the office scribes.
New research questions
The case studies of the monograph mainly concern writing systems in which handwriting has not been exposed to competition from other media. One question that remains to be addressed is therefore the relationship between handwriting and competing media. A planned chapter on Renaissance literature, writing masters books and letterpress printing had to be put aside due to a lack of time. Another planned chapter on the development of manuscripts in the Swedish 20th century also had to be postponed. However, the results of the project raise the question of media competition, and it is my intention that it shall guide my further research on the medium of handwriting.
Scholarly publication
The monograph The Author’s Hand. Six Chapters From the Literary History of Handwriting (Glänta förlag, 2024/25)
Lectures
"Swedish Hands. Scenes From the Literary History of Handwriting in Pre-Modern Sweden", lecture at University of California, Berkeley April 10, 2024
"The Author's Hand. Handwriting, Technology, Medium", lecture at the Department of Comparative Literature and Rhetoric, Uppsala University, February 29, 2024
"Ancient hands. On writing the literary history of manuscripts", Äldretextseminariet at Stockholm University, April 26, 2023
"Ancient hands", lecture at the annual meeting of the Swedish Literature Society in Uppsala, March 30, 2023
"Ancient hands. A chapter in the literary history of handwriting", lecture at the Department of Literature, Religion and History of Ideas, University of Gothenburg September 28, 2022
Research information
"Writing in the flesh. How I stopped worrying about my handwriting and started loving my master", essay in Anekdot. The digital popular education magazine (commissioned, published in fall 2024)
"From the mind to the hand. Handwriting never lives up to expectations", article in Språktidningen, no 1, January 23, 2024 (https://spraktidningen.se/author/thomasgotselius/)
"The painful history of handwriting", interview in Vetenskapsradion historia, Sveriges Radio P1, May 16, 2023 (https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/dresserade-kanariefaglar-roade-1800-talet)
"Manu scriptus - when the hand writes", lecture at Hallands Konstmuseum May 3, 2023
"Learning to write by hand was the same as being flogged", interview on Stockholm University's website on the occasion of "The Day of the Book" April 19, 2023 (https://www.su.se/nyheter/att-lära-sig-skriva-för-hand-var-detsamma-som-att-bli-pryglad-1.654429)
In June 2021, I was awarded a 12-month RJ Sabbatical for the project "The Author's Hand. A Literary History of Handwriting" (SAB21-0020), which also included a month-long stay at the research program Geschichte und Theorien der Kulturtechniken at Bauhaus-Universität Weimar under the supervision of Bernhard Siegert. The project has resulted in a monograph, several guest lectures and research information in the form of contributions to a number of public media.
Results of the project
The main aim of the project has been to complete a monograph that examines writing by hand from a media and literary history perspective. The book manuscript has been accepted for publication by Glänta förlag, and publication in print and open access on the web will take place during the winter of 2024/2025.
The general premise of the project was that through a series of technological innovations - with digitization as the most recent historical example - handwriting has been simultaneously decentered and re-emphasized: decentered by appearing less and less central to document-producing professions and educational institutions, emphasized by the same technological innovations today making handwriting visible as a medium among other media. Paradoxically, handwriting has become both less and more prominent as digitalization has progressed. But what is the significance of this finding? The question prompted theoretical work in which media theoretical models were tested against the empirical nature of handwriting. A first result of the project was thus the elaboration of what could be called a media theory of handwriting, which draws attention to four interacting variables: the body or the actual, physical hand that writes; the practice or the psychomotor routine and social convention that makes it possible to instrumentalize the hand; the script or the varying writing systems and historical hand styles that the hand realizes; the technology or the material and historically changing writing devices and substrates. These variables further interact in a concrete functional context - like other media, handwriting is designed to store, process and transmit data. A concept derived from German cultural technique research and media theory, 'discourse network', clarifies this relationship. But what are the analytical consequences of this theorization? The question forces a methodological reflection, and a second outcome of the project was thus the development of a method for analyzing the handwriting as a medium. One assumption in the project was that such an analysis should be based on literary texts, since these, unlike other types of texts, thematize their creation. In the so-called "scenes of writing" that literary studies have traditionally treated as the author's metapoetic play with his means of expression, there is an opportunity to read the material conditions of possibility of literature. Since there is no particular 'literary' writing by hand, the writing scenes of the literary texts can be seen as representative of handwriting as such in a certain environment and period (i.e. a historical discourse network system). The six case studies of the study make it clear that this assumption was productive. The results of these studies are relatively extensive and cannot be reproduced here in all their historical detail, but the basic insights into the medium of handwriting that the project yields can be summarized in the following points:
1) Technological materiality determines what can be written, but also who is capable of writing. Technologically complex writing systems tend to inhibit the production of writing and lead to the separation of writing and composition. Writing becomes a craft, carried out by specific craftsmen ("scribes"), while composition is reserved for authors who do not write themselves.
2) The design of the writing system and style determines what and how much can be written. Complex writing systems and styles seem to be inversely related to the quantitative outcome and societal distribution of writing skills.
3) The design of the educational system's practices also has an impact on the social distribution of handwriting, but also on its social status. Violent pedagogical practices tend to negatively affect the latter.
4) The body is precarious in any writing system based on handwriting. Physical reactions and ailments are frequent, and they are usually causally linked to any of points 1-3 above.
To summarize, the case studies of the the project make it clear that handwriting has been a historically successful medium, not because of its specific prerogatives but in spite of them. At the same time, it is evident how handwriting has been constrained at every stage of its historical realization by the variables that shape it: each discourse network tends to reward a certain type of outcome while making others impossible. However, no general principle for this recurrent but changing 'unwritability' can be discerned; on the contrary, in this respect the medium of handwriting seems to be characterized by a fundamental historical contingency.
The study "The Author's Hand" is organized over six chapters plus introduction and conclusion. The outline is historically based, but the chapters are separate case studies and there has been no ambition to analyze the recurring changes of the the medium of handwriting in terms of a 'historical development'. Instead, the changes (at the levels of practices or technologies) have been deliberately exploited to study the medium in all its historical diversity. The following chapters are included:
1. 'Ancient hands'. The chapter examines the transition of handwriting from a storage medium to a production medium in Greek and Roman antiquity. It also studies the consequences of the transition from alphabetic to stenographic writing during the Roman Principate.
2. 'Writing in the flesh'. This chapter examines the position of manuscripts and the status of writing in the monasteries of early medieval Western Europe. The focus is on how the technological complexity of the monastic writing system reinforces the separation between composition and writing that emerged in late antiquity.
3. 'The renaissance of the pen'. The chapter examines how clerical writers re-developed the ability to write themselves at the historical turning point when cathedral schools and universities put the old monastic educational monopoly under pressure. The chapter also looks at how medieval women acquired writing skills.
4. 'The Kingdom of the Scribes'. This chapter examines the first national literacy campaign in Europe, which took place in Sweden in the late 17th century. It focuses on the writing practices that emerged as a result of the increased need to document the campaign.
5. ’The Red Manuscript’. The chapter examines the transformation of handwriting from a set of functionally defined styles to a marker of individuality in the early 19th century. It also examines the changing status of the autograph and its transformation from an unremarkable artifact to a desirable fetish.
6. ’The end of writing'. The chapter examines the transition from quill to steel pen during the industrialization of the 19th century. The changes brought about by the new technology - increased efficiency but also ergonomic problems - are examined in literature's portrayal of the new urban proletariat: the office scribes.
New research questions
The case studies of the monograph mainly concern writing systems in which handwriting has not been exposed to competition from other media. One question that remains to be addressed is therefore the relationship between handwriting and competing media. A planned chapter on Renaissance literature, writing masters books and letterpress printing had to be put aside due to a lack of time. Another planned chapter on the development of manuscripts in the Swedish 20th century also had to be postponed. However, the results of the project raise the question of media competition, and it is my intention that it shall guide my further research on the medium of handwriting.
Scholarly publication
The monograph The Author’s Hand. Six Chapters From the Literary History of Handwriting (Glänta förlag, 2024/25)
Lectures
"Swedish Hands. Scenes From the Literary History of Handwriting in Pre-Modern Sweden", lecture at University of California, Berkeley April 10, 2024
"The Author's Hand. Handwriting, Technology, Medium", lecture at the Department of Comparative Literature and Rhetoric, Uppsala University, February 29, 2024
"Ancient hands. On writing the literary history of manuscripts", Äldretextseminariet at Stockholm University, April 26, 2023
"Ancient hands", lecture at the annual meeting of the Swedish Literature Society in Uppsala, March 30, 2023
"Ancient hands. A chapter in the literary history of handwriting", lecture at the Department of Literature, Religion and History of Ideas, University of Gothenburg September 28, 2022
Research information
"Writing in the flesh. How I stopped worrying about my handwriting and started loving my master", essay in Anekdot. The digital popular education magazine (commissioned, published in fall 2024)
"From the mind to the hand. Handwriting never lives up to expectations", article in Språktidningen, no 1, January 23, 2024 (https://spraktidningen.se/author/thomasgotselius/)
"The painful history of handwriting", interview in Vetenskapsradion historia, Sveriges Radio P1, May 16, 2023 (https://sverigesradio.se/avsnitt/dresserade-kanariefaglar-roade-1800-talet)
"Manu scriptus - when the hand writes", lecture at Hallands Konstmuseum May 3, 2023
"Learning to write by hand was the same as being flogged", interview on Stockholm University's website on the occasion of "The Day of the Book" April 19, 2023 (https://www.su.se/nyheter/att-lära-sig-skriva-för-hand-var-detsamma-som-att-bli-pryglad-1.654429)