Abstract (in English)
Since the rise of the mainframe computer, literary authors and critics alike have expressed anxiety about the computer’s ability to write narrative prose and poetry as well humans, or better. This lecture situates the contemporary digital literary practices of reading, writing, rewriting, and performing computer-generated texts within a broader social and historical context, dating to long before the advent of the computer. Christopher Strachey's 1952 Love Letter generator and Theo Lutz's The Castle generator are discussed in depth.