SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION
CMNS 472-4

BOOKS, MARKETS AND READERS

Prerequisite:

75 credit hours including CMNS 372.

Format For Each Class:

a) Lecture
b) Seminar (student presentations, group discussion, guest panels)

Topics:

Books: You are the Market: A Survey of Who, What, When, Why, Where, How you Read
The Book as Cultural Artifact: Building a Public/Nation of Readers
Creative Consumption: From Manuscript to Market
Industry Overview: Trade, Educational, Gift, Mass Market and the role of Genre

Readers:
Reading Together: Books in Schools, Clubs and Workshops
Reader Response and the Role of the Imagination
Canon-makers and Cultural Literacy/Legacy

Markets:
The Retail Environment: Chains, Independents, New venues and the Net
The Elements of Success: Media, Prizes, Bestseller Lists, Reviews
The Global Marketplace: Book Fairs, Agents, Translation and the Cult of Personality
The Future of Books: On and off the page with Electronic Books and the Internet

Texts:
Alberto Manguel, A History of Reading
Sven Birkerts, The Gutenburg Elegies
Paul Grescoe, Merchants of Venus
Ed. Geoffrey Nunberg, The Future of the Book
Northrop Frye, The Educated Imagination
January – April issues of Publisher’s Weekly, Quill&Quire, Canadian Bookseller, BC Bookworld, Prairie Books Now, Atlantic Books Today and book sections of Globe&Mail, National Post and Vancouver Sun
Suggested Supplementary Reading
Sam Solecki, (Ed) Imagining Canadian Literature
Joseph Gold, Read for Your Life
Daniel Pennac, Better Than Life
Harold Bloom, How to Read

Assessment:

Essay 25%
Seminar Presentation 30%
Class Participation 20%
Take-home Exam 25%

The School expects that the grades awarded in this course will bear some reasonable relation to established university-wide practices with respect to both levels and distribution of grades. In addition, the School will follow Policy T10.02 with respect to “Intellectual Honesty”, and “Academic Discipline” (see the current Calendar, General Regulations Section).