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Books > Arts & Architecture > Art forms, treatments & subjects > Other graphic art forms
Most of the everyday writing from the ancient world--that is,
informal writing not intended for a long life or wide public
distribution--has perished. Reinterpreting the silences and blanks
of the historical record, leading papyrologist Roger S. Bagnall
convincingly argues, however, that ordinary people--from Britain to
Egypt to Afghanistan--used writing in their daily lives far more
extensively than has been recognized. Marshalling new and
little-known evidence, including remarkable graffiti recently
discovered in Smyrna, Bagnall presents a fascinating analysis of
writing in different segments of society. His book offers a new
picture of literacy in the ancient world in which Aramaic rivals
Greek and Latin as a great international language, and in which
many other local languages develop means of written expression
alongside these metropolitan tongues.
In The Writing of Where, Charles Lesh examines how graffiti writers
in Boston remake various spaces within and across the city. The
spaces readers will encounter in this book are not just meaningful
venues of writing, but also outcomes of writing itself: social
spaces not just where writing happens but created because writing
happens. Lesh contends that these graffiti spaces reinvent the
writing landscape of the city and its public relationship with
writing. Each chapter introduces readers to different writing
spaces: from bold and broadly visible spots along the highway to
bridge underpasses seldom seen by non-writers; from inconspicuous
notebooks writers call "bibles" to freight yards and model trains;
from abandoned factories to benches where writers view trains.
Between each chapter, readers will find "community interludes,"
responses to the preceding chapters from some of the graffiti
writers who worked on this project. By working closely with writers
engaged in the production of these spaces, as well as drawing on
work invested in questions of geography, publics, and writing, Lesh
identifies new models of community engagement and articulates a
framework for the spatiality of the public work of writing and
writing studies.
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