TY - JOUR
T1 - Inscribing the corpus
T2 - Scribal and ritual practice in the material culture of dunhuang
AU - Dachille, Rae
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020
PY - 2020
Y1 - 2020
N2 - Qualities of the written sign impact the process of parsing a text, of making it accessible for vision, contemplation, recitation, and memory. In this article, I approach the manuscript as a visual field ordered by the configuration, combination, and differentiation of marks. This approach considers the particular challenges and potentialities that the space of the manuscript presents to a scribe as well as to a reader and how this blurs the boundaries between text and image. Through a case study of a Tibetan ritual manual, I illuminate the act of inscription as a technology with material, ritual, mnemonic, and pedagogical applications.
AB - Qualities of the written sign impact the process of parsing a text, of making it accessible for vision, contemplation, recitation, and memory. In this article, I approach the manuscript as a visual field ordered by the configuration, combination, and differentiation of marks. This approach considers the particular challenges and potentialities that the space of the manuscript presents to a scribe as well as to a reader and how this blurs the boundaries between text and image. Through a case study of a Tibetan ritual manual, I illuminate the act of inscription as a technology with material, ritual, mnemonic, and pedagogical applications.
KW - Art history
KW - Buddhism
KW - Dunhuang
KW - Esoteric drawings
KW - Manuscript culture
KW - Ritual writing
KW - Scribal practice
KW - Tibetan Buddhism
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U2 - 10.1163/15685276-12341570
DO - 10.1163/15685276-12341570
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:85091092380
SN - 0029-5973
VL - 67
SP - 113
EP - 137
JO - Numen
JF - Numen
IS - 2-3
ER -