close reading

In this interview Dene Grigar tells about her approach to electronic literature in the early 1990s and about her work as curator for the exhibit "Electronic Literature and Its Emerging Forms" in 2015. She goes on describing some distinguishing features of electronic literature and explaining her 'conceptual shift' on regard to the way of working with computers. Finally she suggests some methods of analysis for the understanding of electronic literature for both academic scholars and mainstream audience.

Today, we not only see video games and online role-playing games interpreted, in print-based scholarly journals, by way of classical literary and narrative theory (to the dismay of the radical ludologist), but we also see the inverse: classical novels interpreted by way of role-playing games staged in computerized, simulated environments (as in Jerome McGann's IVANHOE Game). The use of classical theory for the study of contemporary video games and video games for the study of classical literature, however, does not necessarily mean that we now inhabit a mixed up muddled up shook up literary-critical world. In fact, these examples might mark opposite sides of a continuum of critical practice, and underscore the logic of analyzing a text in a given medium with the tools of a different – and complementary – medium.

The notion recalls McGann's own assertion that problems in textual scholarship inevitably arise when we "deploy a book form to study another book form," thereby creating an undesirable "symmetry between the tool and its subject" (2001, 56). If the assertion holds true across media, it would appear that we have arrived at a rather tidy formulation: scholars should utilize the tools of a dynamic medium in order to study a text in a fixed one and, conversely, they should make recourse to a more stable medium in order to study dynamic works of (digital) literature. The formulation is, of course, too tidy, and breaks down as soon as we consider texts that would fall anywhere in the middle of this continuum. What sort of critical tools and critical perspectives would best suit works of digital literature that rely on a fusion of discursive and material complexity / movement?

Most theorists and critics invested in language-driven digital literature at least tend to agree on a pronounced need for more "close readings." At the same time, it is still not entirely clear what is meant by "close reading" and how (or even if) the very notion of close reading applies to digital literature. This paper suggests that digital literature prompts a revisitation, re-articulation, and reanimation of the concept of close reading, one that attends to the material context of its process and product. It will first consider the historical and genealogical development of close reading alongside the material and technological developments of 20th century literary production – the very context that was consciously elided by its earliest practitioners as they sought to insulate literature from the vulgarities of industrial and technological culture. Then it will perform a series of short close readings of a recent work of digital literature, TOC: a new media novel by Steve Tomasula (et. al.) (2009). The first will disregard medium and materiality, the second will "read" only the medium and its materiality, and a third will read both elements in concert. The experiment aims to demonstrate how understanding textual materiality as something distinct from a work of digital literature is at once impossible and absolutely necessary.

(Source: Author's abstract for ELO_AI)

The aim of this paper, titled “The magnificent Seven” as an echo of the homonymous film, is to introduce the works of different authors that have been included in the Electronic Literature Collection (vol. II) and that are not in English. Following the panel that the ELO introduced in Maryland that opened the e-lit works in languages other that English, here the step has moved convincingly forward since 12 authors from countries such as Brazil, Portugal, France, Israel, Belgium, Colombia, Germany, Perú, México, Catalonia and Spain have been introduced in the vastest English corpus. Some of these authors write in English or have had their works translated into English (Tisselli, Berkehenger, Kruglanski, etc.) but this paper, included in a specific panel that deals with e-lit works non written in English, will analyze in an exercise of “close-reading”, this “magnificent seven” works in Romance languages on the collection: Isaías Herrero’s La casa sota el temps and Universo molécula, Doménico Chiappe’s Tierra de extracción, Ton Ferret’s The fuguebook, Chico Marinho et al. Palavrador and Amor de Clarice and Poemas no meio du caminho by Rui Torres. It is interesting to see the sort of different variety of digital literature that emerges from the comparison.

(Source: Author's abstract for ELO_AI)

In her book Writing Machines, N. Katherine Hayles described the concept of thetechnotext. Hayles used this concept to provide an analysis of a range of texts, including online work, based on their materiality. The analysis described in this article complements this method by developing an approach that explores the conditions of production of contemporary digital literature. It achieves this aim by providing a close reading of the online paratextual elements associated with the first four episodes ofInanimate Alice by Kate Pullinger and Chris Joseph. In doing so, it modifies the print-based analytical framework provide by Gérard Genette and others to develop a detailed account of the off-site, on-site and in-file paratexts of this online work. It sets out a range of thresholds that mould the reception of this text. It also notes how they position it within wider discourses about genre, media, literature and literacy. This article concludes by exploring the limits of this paratextual reading. It discusses whether it provides an adequate account of the material conditions of these texts. It then seeks to integrate this approach into the vision of literary studies described by Hayles in Writing Machines.

Describes the process of reading the hypertext read-only file "WOE" (included on a disk with this journal) in which voices, memories, influences, and the process of text production all converge, rejecting the objective model of reality as the great "either/or" and embracing, instead, the "and/and/and."

As poets continue to use digital media technology, functionalities of computing extend aesthetic possibilities in documents focusing attention on crafting verbal content. Utility of these machines and tools enables multiple types of compounded articulation (combinations of verbal, visual, animated, and interactive elements). Building larger public awareness of the mechanics of digital poetry, New Directions in Digital Poetry aspires to influence the formation of writing with media in literary society of the future, specifically as a record of a particular technological era.Emerging from these studies is that digital poetry as a WWW-based, networked form happens 'in stages', 'on stages'. Few works require singular responses from viewers — both composition of works and viewing them are processes involving multiple steps and visual scenarios. For anyone interested in the interplay of poetry and technology, this book provides an informed look at digital poetry in its contemporary state. In the process of performing “close readings,” Funkhouser makes suggestions and provides methods for viewing works, for audiences perhaps unfamiliar with mechanical and semiotic conventions being used.

[insert abstract here] On reading fiction as an ethical task...

Presented on Saturday, 7 January at the 2012 MLA Convention, panel 442, "New Media, New Pedagogies," arragned by the Division of Prose Fiction. Other panelists included Heather Houser, Jay Clayton, and the moderator, Rebecca L. Walkowitz.