What’s in an index? The hidden work of book indexing

Abstract

This paper delves into the cultural and social dimensions of indexes by examining their functionality and production, drawing on discussion of lists as cultural techniques in the literature of the social sciences and cultural studies. A brief overview of the various dimensions of lists emphasises discontinuity – the absence of a narrative or argumentative connection between the items in the list. Lacking a predetermined order, lists have the potential to accommodate different arrangements and comparisons, a concept exemplified by the alphabetical arrangement of an index, which reconfigures a narrative text through its non-narrative structure. This radically different order structure is one of the defining characteristics of an index, providing an opportunity to view the pre-existing text from a new perspective. Acting as a mediator, the largely invisible (and often unappreciated) indexer bridges the gap between the structure of the text and the new order of the developing index, which is the result of a myriad micro-decisions on what to include and exclude. The resultant index not only supplements the existing text but may also challenge the identity of the text itself, a concern that was expressed by early critics of indexes. Examples from literary indexes in the works of Butler, Vonnegut and Perec demonstrate how indexes may deliberately catch the attention of the reader and are far more than functional devices for information retrieval.