Mediumship

Media history in the traditional sense raises several issues: it always presupposes which media are to be the subject of historical writing. Moreover, it narrates this history along a teleological line of significant innovations. The present volume, resulting from the long-term work of a National Research Focus, takes a different approach. As a new kind of media history, it includes essays that discuss significant constellations from the medieval period to modern times. These essays reveal how media was handled and conceptualized in specific places, under certain conditions, and within particular text and image ensembles.