digital futures of literature, theory, criticism, and the arts

technocapitalism

Electronic Literature: Where Is It?

December 28, 2008

by Dene Grigar

Countering Andrew Gallix's suggestion in The Guardian that electronic literature is finished, author Dene Grigar indicates that it may not be e-lit, but rather the institution of humanities teaching, that is in a state of crisis - and e-lit in fact could be well placed one to revive the teaching of literature in schools and universities.

Teaching the Cyborg (5 of 5)

November 12, 2003

by Marc Bousquet

The Politics of Information: fifth and final installment under the Technocapitalist thread.

The Florida Research Ensemble and the Prospects for an Electronic Humanities

November 11, 2003

by Gregory L. Ulmer

Chris Carter and Greg Ulmer dialogue through e-mails on the mission of the FRE.

The Informatics of Higher Education (4 of 5)

October 5, 2003

by Marc Bousquet

In The Politics of Information, v.4, Bousquet, Wills, and Co bring their critique home to Higher Education.

The Information University

October 4, 2003

by Marc Bousquet

Marc Bousquet discusses university labor delivered in "the mode of information."

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In fact, it would be entirely logical to suggest that elit might even resuscitate reading, given the fact that it inhabits the places most likely to accommodate reading in a digital culture: screens. As Michael Joyce said memorably, “hypertext is the word’s revenge on TV” (1995, 47).

‐ Dave Ciccoricco

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Though this suggestion may set up a misleading comparison (not to mention that moving from ‘if’ – ‘potential’ – to ‘when’ oversteps the mark). Clearly, video games are gaining what we can understand as literary sophistication, in particular those described by Juul as “coherent world” games. But there’s no reason to think that this sort of literary game is on course to subsume the non-literary variety (for lack of a better binary pair). After all, there will always be books and video games that occupy opposite sides of a literary continuum, so it is difficult to see what is actually being compared here.

Perhaps more importantly though, video games have been and will be a boost to digital lit and narrative. But they are not something the field should or needs to rely on for a piggyback ride to popularity and exposure. Such a suggestion would take some edge of the sharp insights made elsewhere in the article with regard to mainstreaming.

‐ Dave Ciccoricco

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A provocative question. I would add to it also the question: “Who are we in relation to it?” Otherwise put, after the cyborg and the posthuman, is there a way of thinking subjectivity that is commensurate with e-lit? Is e-lit intelligible to us? If not, how could it be? Mark Poster briefly and obliquely considers such questions in Information Please: Culture and Politics in the Age of Digital Machines (Durham: Duke UP, 2006).

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