poststructuralism

This rich collection is far more than an important work of criticism by an extraordinary poet; it is a poetic intervention into criticism. "Artifice of Absorption," a key essay, is written in verse, and its structures and rhythms initiate the reader into the strength and complexity of the argument. In a wild variety of topics, polemic, and styles, Bernstein surveys the current poetry scene and addresses many of the hot issues of poststructuralist literary theory. "Poetics is the continuation of poetry by other means," he writes. What role should poetics play in contemporary culture? Bernstein finds the answer in dissent, not merely in argument but in form--a poetic language that resists being easily absorbed into the conventions of our culture.

Insisting on the vital need for radical innovation, Bernstein traces the traditions of modern poetry back to Stein and Wilde, taking issue with those critics who see in the "postmodern" a loss of political and aesthetic relevance. Sometimes playful, often hortatory, always intense, he joins in the debate on cultural diversity and the definition of modernism. We encounter Swinburne and Morris as surprising precursors, along with considerations of Wittgenstein, Khlebnikov, Adorno, Jameson, and Pac-Man. A Poetics is both criticism and poetry, both tract and song, with no dull moments.

(Source: Book jacket)

Linking post-structuralist theory and developments in hypertext text technology, Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology was for many the definitive work on hypertext during the 1990s and established hypertext as a field of serious critical discourse. 

CONTENTS

1. Hypertext and Critical Theory

Hypertextual Derrida, Poststructuralist Nelson?The Definition of Hypertext and Its History as a ConceptOther Convergences: Intertextuality, Multivocality, and De-CenterednessVannevar Bush and the MemexVirtual Texts, Virtual Authors, and Literary ComputingThe Nonlinear Model of the Network in Current Critical TheoryCause or Convergence, Influence or Confluence?Analogues to the Gutenberg RevolutionPredictions

2. Reconfiguring the Text

From Text to HypertextProblems with Terminology: What Is the Object We Read, and What IsText in Hypertext?Verbal and Nonverbal TextVisual Elements in Print TextDispersed TextHypertextual Translation of Scribal Culture; or, The Electronic ManuscriptArgumentation, Organization, and RhetoricBeginnings and Endings in the Open TextBoundaries of the Open TextThe Status of the Text; Status in the TextHypertext and De-centrality: The Philosophical Grounding

3. Reconfiguring the Author

How I Am Writing This BookVirtual PresenceCollaborative Writing, Collaborative AuthorshipExamples of Collaboration in Intermedia

4. Reconfiguring Narrative

Hypertext and the Aristotelian Conception of PlotNarrative Beginnings and EndingsMichael Joyce¹s Afternoon: The Reader¹s Experience as Author

5. Reconfiguring Literary Education

Threats and PromisesReconfiguring the InstructorReconfiguring the StudentReconfiguring the Time of LearningReconfiguring Assignments and Methods of EvaluationExamples of Collaborative Learning from IntermediaReconceiving Canon and CurriculumWhat Chance Has Hypertext in Education?

6. The Politics of Hypertext: Who Controls the Text?

Answered Prayers; or, the Politics of ResistanceThe Marginalization of Technology and the Mystification of LiteratureThe Politics of Particular TechnologiesHypertext and the Politics of ReadingThe Political Vision of Hypertext; or, The Message in the MediumThe Politics of AccessAccess to the Text and the Author's Right (Copyright)

How electronic-writing technologies will affect authorship remains an
important issue in hypertext theory. Theorists agree that the author’s function
has changed and will continue to change as writing migrates from the page to
the screen, but they disagree on the specifics of how print-based and
hypertext-based authorship differ and whether this digital migration constitutes a radical break from the age of print. Early hypertext
advocates, writing in the early 1990s, claimed that naviagational features, such
as hypertextual links, transfer a large degree of textual control from writers
to readers, thus blurring the distinction between the role of the author and
that of the reader. More recently, theorists began to dispute the idea that the
hypertextual reading experience was necessarily more creatively empowering than
reading a printed book. Exploring the arguments of influential hypertext
theorists, this paper traces developments in hypertext theory in the United
States during the 1990s. It describes how poststructuralism has informed
hypertext theories of authorship, identifies problematic or undertheorized
claims made about hypertext, and points towards new avenues of theoretical
inquiry that hypertext scholars are beginning to explore. It endorses the
recent medial turn in hypertext theory and argues that literary scholars must
revise existing theories of authorship to better articulate how hypertexts are
produced and function within online networks where the written word coexists
with streaming multimodal content. 

(Source: author's abstract.)