Abstract
This study sets out to understand the ways a publishing house can set itself up as an actor able to intervene in the agency of authors, guiding – even determining – the performance of the writers, translators, and adapters it accommodated in the catalogue. The empirical angle is supported by an in-depth case-study of Romano Torres publishing house, a publisher set in Lisbon which established its activity in the realm of the Portuguese language between the years of 1885-1886 and 1990. To examine the publishing activity through the case analyzed herein is to understand how an intricate system of relations, and their context, shapes the action of agents and their dispositions. This reveals how in cultural production and circulation, the autonomy of each field can only be explained taking into account its permeability. In the end, this proposal is interested in capturing the ways a book publishing house for mass consumption ends up shaping a catalogue and its forms of circulation, by interfering simultaneously in the transformation of the book market and in the forms of making books reach their readers.
Presenters
Nuno MedeirosAssistant Professor, Department of History. Literatures, Arts and Cultures Division, Universidade de Lisboa (School of Arts and Humanities), Portugal
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Publishing Practices: Past, Present, and Future
KEYWORDS
Mass-market Publishing Culture-shaping
