Book Advertising


from the Eighteenth Century to the Digital Age
The English-language press


and the Japanese book trade

「書籍宣伝広告」の歴史的言説形成


―英日を対象とした広告理論からのアプローチ―

Project Overview

This research project investigates historical, cross-cultural, and contemporary factors informing advertising approaches and strategies within the publishing and book-selling industries of the English language press and Japanese book trade from the eighteenth century to the digital age. While wide-ranging in scope, it pursues two main strands of inquiry. Firstly, while it considers the commissioning and selling of books as fundamentally a commercial enterprise, it simultaneously problematizes the 'commodity-status' of the book and reduction of readers to 'mere consumers'. Secondly, it explores the ways in which advertising has played an important role in creating powerful adjunct narratives to the texts they promote, which shapes reader reception and often reflects the ideological and political sympathies of publishers. Research questions derived from these broad aims will be applied to the English-language press and the Japanese book trade, especially in the context of the birth of modernity.