word processing

“I suppose that my fiction will be word-processed by association, though I myself will not become a green-screener,” John Barth told the Paris Review in 1985. But just a few years later he did, not only switching to a word processor but exploring the machine as a subject in subsequent fiction. This lecture, drawn from my forthcoming book Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing, interweaves a narrative of word processing’s introduction to the literary world–we will see that Barth’s story, both his abrupt turn-around and his fear of guilt by association is typical–with a consideration of practical problems in doing research at the intersection of literary and technological history, especially the changing nature of the archive as primary source material becomes itself “born-digital.” Along the way we will take a look at Stephen King’s Wang, John Updike’s trash, and the 200-pound writing machine that produced the first word processed novel in English.

(Source: ELD 2015)

Matthew G. Kirschenbaum, a professor of English at the University of Maryland and director of the Maryland Institute for Technology in the Humanities, explored questions of technology, research, content and writing at the intersection of literary and technological history during an ATLAS Speaker Series presentation Oct. 1, 2012.

Drawing from his book, “Track Changes: A Literary History of Word Processing,” Kirschenbaum talked about how word processors have changed the history and culture of authorship and how technology has changed the relationship of writers to their craft. 

This event was a collaboration between the ATLAS Institute, CU’s Department of English, The ICJMT (Information, Communication, Journalism, Media and Technology) Initiative, University Libraries ScriptaLab and Friends of the Libraries.

The ATLAS Speaker Series is made possible by a generous donation by Idit Harel Caperton and Anat Harel.

(Source: Atlas Speaker Series, University of Colorado)

Work in progress, presented at the History of Material Texts workshop at the University of Pennsylvania 23 February 2004 (references therefore are omitted).

Montfort investigates into human-computer interaction before the screen and questions "how early print-based interfaces inform our understanding of print and paper metaphors in current computer interfaces."