Rediscovering classics: Robert Darnton’s communications circuit

Abstract

Many scholars point to the crisis in the Russian bibliology. Meanwhile, those involved in the discussion specify the origins of the crisis in the discipline differently. One possible way to overcome the theoretical crisis of bibliology is to turn to Robert Darnton’s conceptual model of communications circuit. Robert Darnton is well known for his studies in the history of book culture of the modern era yet his model, which has long been recognized as a classic in international historical book studies, has been ignored by Russian bibliologists. The author describes the model that contemplates to identify agents of book communications; the sustained interactions between the agents structure and reproduce the world of book culture. The methodological context of the “pragmatic turn” that defines the model-based concept of book culture based on Clifford Geertz’s semiotic theory of culture, is revised. Possible ways of adapting Darnton’s model to the subsequent stages of media development are outlined. The communications circuit model offers research optics to consider book culture as the communicative wholeness within which the book serves as a medium to facilitate social interactions between different agents involved in the book communication process. Application of Darnton’s model would provide a new research agenda and its incorporation into the relevant international scholarly context.