authority

Censoring an Iranian Love Story (CAILS) by Shahriar Mandanipour (2009) is a novel written for translation. Despite being penned in Farsi, this original text has yet to be published. CAILS simultaneously presents the initial titular love story (bold), pre-emptively censored text before it is ‘submitted’ to the Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance (bold with strikethrough), and explanations as to why censoring occurred (roman). Mandanipour’s voice has the authority that comes with writing in a mother tongue, yet in writing for translation he disavows authorial privilege. A non-hierarchical electronic text that enables the reader to shift between the ‘original’, censored, and ‘annotated’ text, as well as these options within the original Farsi, could restore authority to the writer. By theorising such an edition, I explore the possibility of a novelistic form that would enable and empower non-English writers to cross linguistic, social, cultural, political, religious, and censorship boundaries.

This dissertation is just one portal into the cyberspace-based virtual world called the "Xenaverse," so named because of its association with the world-wide syndicated television program, "Xena: Warrior Princess." The Xenaverse cannot be contained by this dissertation, but this project seeks to link and merge with the webbed Xenaverse culture in cyberspace. To learn about the Xenaverse you must step through a portal, become immersed and explore, both within and beyond the blurred boundaries of this dissertation, and into the Xenaverse itself.

When you are ready to leave, you will have to find your way out, for just as this hypertextual dissertation has an entry portal, it also has an exit portal, a space for you to debrief and share your thoughts on your way out, to contribute to the ongoing dialogue that is this dissertation web on the Internet.

The Xenaverse will stretch your imagination and disbelief in many ways: in constantly shifting voices and perspectives, through bastardized and parallel timelines, with flawed classical Greek deities, by darkly troubled heroines and their numerous bards, and most of all by the Xenites themselves, who have collectively created this virtual landscape in cyberspace. This dissertation aims to be one sort of tour guide, both describing and analyzing in an effort to understand this space. The journey begins with a single link.

Source: from the opening page to the hypertext-only doctoral dissertation