ポスト活字の考古学

ありえたかもしれないもう一つの映像文化史

抄録

　The purpose of this study is to explain how film was expected to take the place of print media when it emerged as a new media form in the 1920s and 30s. Recently, many people have proclaimed the imminent arrival of post-print culture due advances in information technology (e.g. e-books). It is not first time, however, for the Gutenberg galaxy (print media) to be in a crisis.　In the 20s and 30s, media systems dramatically changed. For example, the publication of Enpon (1926) and the Iwanami-Bunko pocket-sized edition (1927) easily and cheaply spread information. Facing these changes in media and knowledge acquisition, some people hoped and believed that films, which had great influence on the public, would supersede print culture. They asserted that print culture had produced many elitists full of abstract notions that had nothing to do with real life. In particular, supporters of the post-print theory predicted that film could integrate enlightenment and entertainment. In other words, films as entertainment were expected to easily raise public cultural awareness.　This is the central problem of the post-print theory, from which we can learn a lesson for the future. As the technology of visual media such as e-books, YouTube video and 3Dscreens becomes more sophisticated, it is more and more important for visual culture to perform an archaeology of post-print media.