digital literary studies

By Ana Castello, 13 October, 2018
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Abstract (in English)

DigLitWeb is a hypertext in progress. Its aim is to reflect upon the ongoing digitisation of literature, with particular attention to the field of English and American Studies. We expect it to develop as a collective learning environment, and also as an annotated guide toelectronic works and archives. We examine both online editions of our inherited archive, and new digital genres and forms. The work published here originated in the postgraduate seminars 'Digital Culture and Literary Studies' and  'Electronic Editions and Archives', during the academic years 2003-2004 and 2005-2006.Additional material was added for the undergraduate courses 'Literature and Media in the Digital Age', in 2006-2007, 'Introduction to New Media' and 'History of the Book: From Manuscripts to Digital Texts', in 2008-2009; for 'Art and Multimedia', in 2009-2010; and also for the postgraduate seminar 'Kinetic Poetry', in 2009-2010. Sections are partially bilingual (Portuguese and/or English).

(Source: Digital Literature Web)

By Alvaro Seica, 16 May, 2015
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Abstract (in English)

What is a bibliographical object in a distributed digital environment? What are the challenges in developing a bibliographical description of digital artifacts and how could these be addressed using post-colonial theories of knowledge production? When we try to apply traditional analytic or descriptive approaches to bibliography to digital artifacts, it quickly becomes clear that they are not “objects” in the analogue sense. Digital objects are constituted at the intersection of multiple dependencies—from file types and platforms to bandwidth, browser capabilities, and processing speeds to social and cultural conditions of production and reception. This talk draws on various models of bibliographical study and approaches to the history of the book to suggest some ways a general practice of digital bibliography might be developed.

(Source: ELD 2015)

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Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Coimbra
Largo da Porta Férrea
3004-530 Coimbra
Portugal

Short description

‘Digital Literary Studies’ is an international conference exploring methods, tools, objects and digital practices in the field of literary studies. The digitization of artifacts and literary practices, the adoption of computational methods for aggregating, editing and analyzing texts as well as the development of collaborative forms of research and teaching through networking and communication platforms are three dimensions of the ongoing relocation of literature and literary studies in the digital medium. The aim of this two-day conference is to contribute to the mapping of material practices and interpretative processes of literary studies in a changing media ecology.

(Source: https://eld2015.wordpress.com/call-for-papers/)

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Abstract (in English)

A timeline relating digital literature and computation divided into three main topics: technological context (brown), cultural context (blue) and digital literature [littérature numérique] (green).

Digital literature started at the same time as electronic computation. This timeline presents digital literature in context, showing its roots in terms of pioneering scientific issues and literary issues, from the poetic avant-garde of the 20th century to more traditional writing systems. Digital literature progressively transforms itself with technological updating.

Description in original language
French
Abstract (in original language)

La littérature numérique est apparue en même temps que l'informatique. Elle s'enracine dans des problématiques scientifiques pionnières et des questions littéraires issues des avant-gardes poétiques du 20e siècle ou des écritures plus traditionnelles. Elle se transforme au fur et à mesure des progrès technologiques.

(Source: http://balises.bpi.fr/culture-numerique/lhistoire-de-la-litterature-num…)

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By Patricia Tomaszek, 13 April, 2012
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CC Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives
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Abstract (in English)

Too often the discourse surrounding contemporary digital art and electronic literature treats these artifacts as if the most compelling aspects about them are their novelty, their very newness. One need look no further than the theme of the 2007 Digital Arts and Culture Conference, ‘The Future of Digital Media Culture’, to see this. Because our orientation is always forward towards the future, we are inclined toward a kind of myopia, and reluctance to look at the new through the lens of the past. With this orientation, there is furthermore a danger of placing too high a value on novelty at the expense of other aesthetic and ideological criteria. We see this in new media art discourse again and again. Turf wars regularly take place over ‘firstness’ – which designer was the first to use this technique, who was the first to integrate this type of programming into a new media artwork, etc. We are clearly in the midst of a global communication revolution that has changed the practice of daily life in far-reaching ways, and it is important to recognize, identify, and contemplate those aspects of our culture that are changing so rapidly. In the field of electronic literature, it is important to identify and analyze the media-specific aspects of individual works, to think about what in their formal nature as digital objects produced on and for the computer and/or network distinguishes them from literary objects produced in the past. In our rush towards these new horizons however we need also to look at electronic literature in the contexts not only of the history of computing and digital culture, but also in the context of the art and literary movements from which they emerge and with which they are in conversation. In this essay and in future work, I will argue that electronic literature can be best understood as a polyglot literary and artistic avant-garde movement that owes a great deal technically, aesthetically, and ideologically to various avant-garde movements of the twentieth century, beginning with Dada.

Pull Quotes

In the field of electronic literature, it is important to identify and analyze the media-specific aspects of individual works, to think about what in their formal nature as digital objects produced on and for the computer and/or network distinguishes them from literary objects produced in the past. In our rush towards these new horizons however we need also to look at electronic literature in the contexts not only of the history of computing and digital culture, but also in the context of the art and literary movements from which they emerge and with which they are in conversation.

Beyond the creation of any single technique, the most important thing that the digital artists and authors of the future might learn from the Dada is their very willingness to experiment, to create objects and experiences that may bring nothing for years, or alternatively, may inspire other artists a century hence.

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By Eric Dean Rasmussen, 20 October, 2011
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235-38
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47.2
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All Rights reserved
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Abstract (in English)

A review of Alan Liu's The Laws of Cool.

Pull Quotes

[T]he humanities cannot afford to abandon its connection with history, or to construe this connection solely as the history of critical destruction. Such a narrowing of historical focus and thus of the meaning and importance of the humanities would be a grievous capitulation to the very forces that Liu so admirably deconstructs and wishes to combat.

Following the lead of Dario Gamboni in The Destruction of Art: Iconoclasm and Vandalism since the French Revolution, Liu looks for examples of "de-arting" that will have the "heft" to deconstruct the prevailing assumptions of knowledge work. This leads to what is in my view the most tenuous part of his complex chain of inferences, for "de-arting," in its emphasis on destructive creativity (the opposite of the creative destruction heralded by the relentless and constant innovation that underwrites the ideology of knowledge work), can easily slide into vandalism and even terrorism.

Though it may be true that few places on earth remain entirely unaffected by global information networks, surely it is an exaggeration to claim, as Liu says, ventriloquizing the voice of diversity management, that "pure business culture remains definitive of all culture.

Alan Liu's The Laws of Cool: Knowledge Work and the Culture of Information is a big book—big in scope, ambition, research, vision, analysis, and the challenge it presents to the academy. Its publication represents a landmark event in understanding where we are headed as we plunge ever deeper into the infosphere of ubiquitous computing, global Internet culture, and information economies.

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The UCSB English Department encourages upper-division students with particular literary/critical interests to pursue them formally by selecting one of the new specializations in the major. The specialization in Literature and the Culture of Information (supervised by the department's Transcriptions Project) brings the perspective of the humanities to the concept of "information" that many students will engage with professionally and personally all their lives. In particular, Literature and the Culture of Information compares the forms, media, institutions, and aesthetics of the "information revolution" to similar revolutions in the past—e.g., the print revolution. The goal is to ask what the "well-read" have to offer the "well-informed," and vice versa. What was beautiful, enlightening, or cruel in the project of orality or literacy and their literatures? How does the project of information compare? And how might the insights of past ages of language be used to improve our contemporary age? Courses offered by the specialization in Literature and the Culture of Information hybridize the theory, practice, and literature of contemporary information culture with studies of the earlier information media of oral discourse, manuscripts, and print and the literature they embodied.

(Source: LCI Specialization at UBSB English Department's webpage)

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Abstract (in English)

Aim and Content

Electronic literature is literary fiction and poetry created for the computer and the network. Genres of electronic literature, while focused on poetics, have connections to other forms of digital culture such as network art and computer games. In this course, students will read works of electronic literature as for instance hypertext fiction, digital poetry, and interactive fiction. Students will also study theoretical and critical studies of electronic literature.

Creative practice is an important component of the course, and all students will participate in the production of collaborative work of electronic literature, either created from scratch as a website or similar, or modifying an existing work of electronic literature. The necessary technical skills will be taught as needed. Students will also receive practical training in analyzing electronic literature, in particular in analysis of how the elements common in electronic literature, such as images, motion, time and space and interactivity influence the text of experience and reader experience, and how this also complicates our understanding of traditional narrative and poetry.

 Learning Outcomes

After successfully completing this course, students will have:

  • an overview of the history and genres of electronic literature
  • familiarity with key works of hypertext fiction, digital poetry, and interactive fiction
  • an understanding of how visual, kinetic, temporal and interactive features work in narrative and poetry in electronic literature, and how they complicate our understandings of the reader and of the literary in general.

After successfully completing this course, students will be able to:

  • apply theories about electronic literature in their own interpretations of specific works
  • reflect upon their own creative practice and use feedback to improve their work
  • write specifically for digital environments
  • grasp elementary principles of programming
  • understand coding and design as elements of writing practice.

 In addition to class meetings, each student will have one supervision meeting with the lecturer in connection with semester thesis.

 Compulsory Requirements

There are two compulsory activities.

1)     Students will participate in a collaborative practical project (this discussion will take place online).

2)     Each student will choose a work of electronic literature to they present orally to the class and write a critical description of at least 400 words (these will be scheduled for Thursdays beginning week 38, and must be thematically appropriate for the week).

In order to take the exam it is required that the student has participated in at least 75 percent of the teaching and classroom activities. Course participation is approved by the course leader.

 Assessment methods

Students can choose between two alternative assignment types:

1)     Create a work of electronic literature and write an introduction to the work of 1,500 words that sets it in a critical context.

2)     Write a comparative analysis of two works of electronic literature, 4000 words in length.

 More detailed presentations of compulsory and semester assignments will be presented on the studentportal.

 Recommendations: Mapping your thoughts.  Using a sheet of paper or using a digital tool, create a pictorial outline of your readings in electronic literature.  Designate each work and draw (and label) lines that connect the works you are reading (look for formal, historical, material, or conceptual connections between the works.)  In another color, map the critical works you are focusing on, along with their connections. Then, after you have mapped what you have studied, draw lines back to historical forms and draw lines forward to anticipated forms, try to name these connections.  Use this method to tease out connections and engage in speculation that will be useful in completing your term project.  Eventually, we will be bringing these notes together in small workgroups, and try to use some of note-taking to facilitate tagging activities in an online database.

 Grading Scale: Grade scale A-F.

 Office hours: Professor Heckman's office is HF449. Office hours will be 9:00-10:00 T, Th, and by appointment.