A review of two field-defining books about electronic literature by N. Katherine Hayles and Christopher Funkhouser, whose literary scholarship counters the ahistoricizing tendencies of much writing about digital media.
(Source: Eric Dean Rasmussen)
The production of digital literature is tied quite closely to its criticism and study, as many digital poets are scholars and vice versa; the shifts and developments in one area are never without
consequence in the other. This is why both an authoritative anthology and an archaeology are valuable interventions against ahistoricizing trends in digital media.
Funkhouser sees the growth of participatory, ergodic texts as "crucial" to the future of digital poetry, and ties the fate of digital poetry to that of games.
As the horizon of digital arts and literatures expands, the question that both Hayles and Funkhouser must confront directly is how to define their field.