Incomplete record (stub)

This dissertation arises from an interest as a research fellow at the project “PO.EX'70-80 – Digital Archive of Portuguese Experimental Poetry” which has in its essence the problematic of digital archives for variable and multimodal media. Sharing is nowadays a word contested in many ways, and it is this same fact that underpins this thesis too. The distribution of information and the works of art in various digital files is our topic in scrutiny. With this sharing it is our intention to inform about distinct authors and art forms, making them present in a world where the multimodal and the cultural diversity seem to walk together, but also seem to be quite ephemeral in its productions. Assuming that the digital files are critical to the preservation and dissemination of artistic content, the aim of this dissertation will be to know a little more of this world of participative, multimedia and hypertextualized culture, and ending with an overview of the forms of archiving that digital makes possible today. This research also includes the analysis and qualitative assessment of five digital archives: PO.EX'70-80, ELMCIP (Electronic Literature as a Model of Creativity and Innovation in Practice), VirtualArt Database, ELD (Electronic Literature Directory) and NT2 (Nouvelles Tecnhologies Nouvelles Textualités). We investigate and propose a autonomous model of analysis and evaluation, aiming to understand the pros and cons of these archives and how they are made known to the public and their users.

(source: abstract in repository)

We are witnessing the emergence of a third generation of electronic literature, one that breaks with the publishing paradigms and e-literatury traditions of the past and present.

N. Katherine Hayles first historicized electronic literature by establishing 1995 as the break point between a text heavy and link driven first generation and a multimodal second generation “with a wide variety of navigation schemes and interface metaphors” (“Electronic Literature: What Is It?”). Even though Hayles has since rebranded the first wave of electronic literature as “classical,” generational demarcations are still useful, especially when enriching the first generation with pre-Web genres described by Christopher Funkhouser in ​Prehistoric Digital Poetry​ and others. My paper redefines the second generation as one aligned with Modernist poetics of innovation by creating interfaces and multimodal works in which form is invented to fit content.

Third generation electronic literature emerges with the rise of social media networks, the development of mobile, touchscreen, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) platforms. This generation is less concerned with inventing form and more with remixing and creating work within well established platforms and their interfaces, parallel to a return to recognizable poetic forms, Romantic subjectivity, and pastiche in Postmodern poetry. This includes Instagram poetry, bots, apps, kinetic typography, lyric videos, memes, Twine games, and works that take advantage of smartphone, touchscreen, and VR technologies. This generation leaves behind book and open Web publishing paradigms and embraces new funding models, such as crowdfunding and software distribution platforms.

Even though the first generation of e-lit ended about 20 years ago, the second and third generation currently coexist, much as Modernist and Postmodernist literature do. And while second generation works are currently more sophisticated, complex, and aligned with academia, the third generation will produce the first massively successful works because they operate in platforms with large audiences that need little to no training to reading them. So while second generation works will continue to attract critical acclaim with limited audiences, it is the third generation that will produce the field’s first #1 hit.

(author abstract)

I consider the role of the source code of generative literature in the process of meaning making. The significance of code in the cultural meaning of generative works means the source code becomes a key factor to explore in literary studies. I use Critical Code Studies (Marino) which rejects the practice of only analyzing the output of electronic literature and instead proposes to look at code from a humanities perspective as an integral part of coded literature. To specify this emerging field specifically for generative literature, I propose a distinction between three levels on which the code is involved in the meaning-making process of generative literature: the linguistic level, the literary level. and the cultural level. On the linguistic level, I draw from structuralism, using Jakobson's notions of selection and combination as outlined in "Two aspects of language and two types of aphasic disturbances". Generative literature shows the meaning of language explicitly via selection and combination of linguistic units, and adds to this process a literary meaning employing the process of chiasm and overwriting. To do justice to the complexity of the materiality of coded literature on a literary level, I link this to Brillenburg et al's reference to Lyotard's notion of chiasm as excess of meaning and Dworkin's notion of neglected perspectives. Moreover, the source code is positioned as a trope for objectivity, as it does not embody the same cultural biases as one expects from intention-typical research. On a cultural level, I argue that source code is positioned as a trope of objectivity, as the randomness of generation supposes an emptiness of cultural bias.

(author abstract)