TEXT! - an introduction

literature, archives, material texts, culture, with varying degrees of first personness

Welcome to TEXT! — the weekly, or fortnightly, or sometimes monthly newsletter with an exclamation mark in its title. And caps.

But what is it? That’s a terrific question. It’s written by me, Adam Smyth, Seer Green & Jordans ‘Cub of the Year’ for 1984, and currently Professor of English Literature and the History of the Book, at Balliol College, Oxford. I’ll be writing about some of the things that interest me, including books, art, and music, often with a down-the-rabbit-hole archival feel. Perhaps the best way to think of TEXT! is as the area on a Venn diagram where this meets with this and also this. Articles will be short. A picture of a bicycle follows.

You can subscribe if you’d like to receive TEXT! directly to your inbox. Just click the button below. Everything here is very clear!