avant-garde literature

Czechoslovak literature always kept up with literary trends, which were trying to combine texts and possibilities of new medias. Whether we speak about a period of literary avant-garde, or about a period of experimental poetry of 1960s, works of Czechoslovak authors were always at the forefront of domestic literary-theoretical and literary-historical reflection and had strong (in case of 1960s even initiative) cultural impact abroad. However, after the rise of digital literature the situation and position of Czechoslovak (and Czech and Slovak) literary production have changed. Domestic theory and praxis in digital literature have become marginal issue. Even if there has emerged a piece of work with potential to interest international readers and theorists, it has never crossed borders of former Iron Curtain in nearly 100% cases. Czech and Slovak digital literature has found itself at dual perihpery at the same time – domestic (internal) and foreign (external).

The aim of this contribution is clear then. First – to briefly sketch an evolution of CzechSlovak digital literature and introduce its (im)potentiality to leave the external periphery and get into the digital literature’s spotlight more. Second – to propose concepts and possibilities of researching and making the digital literature more international and attractive in an environment, in which there is a general lack of creative and theoretical interest in digital literature at all (pushing it to internal periphery).

Even though Czech-Slovak digital literature produces insufficient number of works on an average (even less of that noteworthy), such pieces of works which could succeed in an international gauge still can be found. Whether we speak about a field of computer-generated literature, interactive literary installations, hypertext novels or collaborative projects, CzechSlovak digital literature manages to follow international trends as Czechoslovak literature managed it during an era of experimental literature in 1920s and 1960s. So why is it not able to break through these days in the period of digital literature? Why is it not able to leave the sphere of overlooked external periphery? What is the Czech-Slovak digital literature missing? And finally: How to deepen the tradition of digital literature in those countries? And is it possible at all?

All of these questions will be briefly answered within the contribution and by using Leonard Flores’ idea of postnational phenomenon, it will try to outline the concept and approach, which could be ideal for deepening tradition of digital literature in „peripheral“ country and for taking the digital literature „from the internal periphery to the center“.

Is electronic literature in a cul de sac? For the main audience only digitized literature exist. E-books, e-readers, self-publishing, tablets, digital libraries, publishing houses in the Web, etc. Electronic literature needs certain conditions to revive: 1. The literary corpus should increase. 2. The text should be the focus, the story should not be hidden with special effects that can be of no interest at all. 3. There must be professional criticism on digital works.

What I tentatively call a "Digital epistemology" is a twofold media archaeological concept, on the one hand it defines a historical notion, or – with Kittler – a discursive network. By this I mean that texts and artworks produced during the post-war digital era in many ways could be said to reproduce a digital logic, whether or not they are digital-born, and whether or not they orchestrate, or address, a digital logic on a formal as well as thematic level. In short: a novel need not be about computers to be an expression of the digital epistemology. On the other hand, and consequently, Digital epistemology could be said to define a set of literary and aesthetic practices from almost any point in history, in any medium. This understanding of the concept suggests that digital logic actually could predate digital technology, and thus could be found in texts and artworks all through history (a suggestion, though, I will not fully explore in this presentation…). By studying contemporary electronic texts against the backdrop of earlier print-based strategies, it is possible to not only better analyze what is new in electronic literature, (- to address for example, the question of what constitutes the concept of text in electronic literature) but also how the perspective of digital technology could encourage new theoretical questions to address earlier literary practices. In this paper, then, I will take an experimental novel from the Swedish literary Avant-Garde in the 1960’s as a point of departure for a reflection on textual strategies that are derived from a computerized, or digital, logic (i.e. one of many possible expressions of a digital epistemology). The Swedish author/critic Torsten Ekbom’s novel – or, according to its pretext, »Prose Machine» – Signalspelet [The Game of Signals] 1965 simulates a text that is being produced by a computer that has been programmed with simple text fragments (mainly derived from W. E. Johns Biggles, Secret Agent). These fragments somehow, slowly and not without technical failures, are organized into something that remotely resemble fiction. »The Game of Signals» is, of course, a very explicit expression of a Digital epistemology and could be said to predate the logic of digital culture. From a media archaeological perspective then, Ekbom’s experiment provides an »anachronistic» tool for approaching the »literariness» of electronic texts of the present date. Furthermore, we will see how the logic of certain electronic texts may shed light on literary strategies predating digital culture by decades and centuries.