Textual Efflorescence and Social Resources: Notes on Mediaeval Iceland
Textual Efflorescence and Social Resources: Notes on Mediaeval Iceland
Itamar Even-Zohar (Tel Aviv University)
Textual Production and Status Contests in Rising and Unstable Societies:Digital Publishing, pp. 11-32 (2013)
Abstract
The overt double function of culture traits and products, namely instrumental- ity and symbolicity, which may be explicit in some elements, often remains hidden for other ones. Cars as practical vehicles and signs of status may appear as an obvious case that does not need much explanation. In contrast, texts, especially those considered to be non-practical, seem to be a less obvious case. What use- ful or practical purposes can non-practical texts serve, and in what sense and to what extent may they become valuable possessions?
These questions have been discussed in various scholarly traditions in a variety of ways, but somehow the operation of texts as a major factor in the creation of social resources and en- ergy has not yet become a high priority issue on the agenda of whatever related disciplines. In this paper, I will attempt to draw attention to the relation between textual activity and social energy in connection mostly with the puzzling case of mediaeval Iceland.
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