The Literary Apprentice
   

What Happens When Literature Goes Digital?

   

What happens when literature goes digital is complex. What literature, for example?

Traditional print-based works go digital.

Readers and scholars now take traditional works whose intended "radical of presentation" (This is Northrup Frye's phrase in "Fourth Essay RHETORICAL CRITICISM: THEORY OF GENRES" 246 where he writes, "The basis of generic distinctions in literature appears to be the radical of presentation.") is the book and reproduce them in a digital format. This often entails putting works online but in other storage media such as disks and cdroms. Many of the links in this website are to digitized literature online. Here is one master site: http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/modeng/modeng0.browse.html But visit Links to see others.

Given that digital medium, we can then introduce a hypertext links to the literature by adding internal links, annotations, and supplements. When online, we can network readers and record comments and discussions. Being able to access and manipulate a work of textual art digitally and on line is a very important new adjunct to the act of reading and rereading any work of literature, new or old. Certainly exploring what happens when "literature goes digital" in this manner is an important thread in this area of interest. For example, many scholarly issues arise. Here is one article which began the discussion these issues years ago.

  • John Lavagnino. Reading, Scholarship, and Hypertext Editions. This paper was published in TEXT: Transactions of the Society for Textual Scholarship, volume 8, in 1995, pages 109-124 <http://www.stg.brown.edu/resources/stg/monographs/rshe.html> It deals with the issue of placing the texts of master works of literature on line for scholarly work.
  • J Hillis Miller, Graphic or Verbal: A Dilemma from Black Holes <http://www.altx.com/ebr/ebr7/7miller/index.html> writes about the digitization of traditional literature in a far more personal and reflective way which gives us insight into his relationship with one of his favorite books and at the same time cautions us about what is lost as well as gained in the process of digitizing works of literature.

Moreover, we can appreciate the efforts of readers to document and share their reading, interpreting and annotating efforts in the form of hypertext webs based on the author's work. Many courses in literature assign or encourage these readings as a viable way to write about literature. You may find this is an exciting way to write your way into better reading, if you can make webpages and links.

Cyber/Hypertext works, however, are born digital.

An altogether different thread to explore with this question concerns the literature designed for a digital "radical of presentation." What happens when literature is born digital? Questions emerge because of the maleable nature of the digital technology--disputes over even the proper terminology for such art. Is it hypertext, hypermedia, cyberfiction, cyber poetry, graphic poetry, animated poetry, or something else? Must it be dominantly hyperlinked text with an admixture of graphics and sound only, or can it be more radically fluid with sound and graphics altering anything like a traditional "reading" experience? To what extent must it subvert the linear narrative structures which plot seems to require? Must the reader's traditional role be reconfigured? This page gives you links to sites which start you on these issues.

In the context of this web site, any student of reading literature would want to read some hypertext fiction or poetry. From the many links below we can choose some that might give you a flavor of what a hypertext novel, story, novella or poem is. Because many are not freely available on line, we cannot simply read several of the most talked about or critically reviewed works. Still, you can read histories of hypertext literature that will describe them for you. Some of you may even choose to expand your knowledge of this genre and purchase them.

Cyber Literature/Hypertext Literature

Here are links to works or authors which are worth a look for examples.

  • Eastgate's Hypertext Reading Room <http://www.eastgate.com/ReadingRoom.html> collects Web writing contributed by some of the finest hypertext writers working today.
  • Judy Molloy <http://www.well.com/user/jmalloy/awquilt.html> Molloy is one of the early more impressive hyperfiction artists.
  • Grammatron <http://www.grammatron.com/>
  • Stuart Moulthrop's Hegirascope (VERSION 2 · OCTOBER, 1997) <http://raven.ubalt.edu/staff/moulthrop/hypertexts/hgs/hegirascope.html>
  • a fairly good set of links to cyber poetry sites: <http://www.hphoward.demon.co.uk/poetry/hypelink.htm>

Having taken a look a few works of hypertext fiction and poetry, you should now go on to read the reflections of several artists and critics on this new medium. Each of these three authors in his own way presents an indispensable commentary.

Important Links to sites that overview literary hypertext:

  • Michael Shumate at Duke University is the place to start with Hypertext Fiction.
  • The Text Electric <http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elljflp/ht/index.htm> Essays, Hyperfictions and Bibliography of Resources--an experimental project stemming from the Department of English Language and Literature, National University of Singapore Visit the page on Hyperfiction for a set of useful links that introduce one to this art.
  • Eastgate's Compendia <http://www.eastgate.com/hypertext/Compendia.html> which links to essential reading about hypertext.

Reading Hypertext Literature--some practical criticism

  • Wreader's Digest - How To Appreciate Hyperfiction by Anja Rau (Journal of Digital information, volume 1 issue 7 Themes: Hypertext criticism 2000-12-14) <http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v01/i07/Rau/> In her abstract, Rau claims that "compared to its age - or youth - hyperfiction is a rather well-theorized genre. Hyperfiction-criticism either praises its subject as evolved print-text and better realization of contemporary literary theory - or deplore its - allegedly - low literary quality. What is missing, however, are in-depth readings of digital fiction that deemphasize theory and try to appreciate this new genre for what it has to offer."
  • A Child's Game Confused: reading Juliet Ann Martin's oooxxxooo by Jill Walker (Department of Humanistic Informatics, University of Bergen, Sydnesplassen 7, 5007 Bergen, Norway Journal of Digital information, volume 1 issue 7 [Themes: Hypertext criticism] 2000-12-19) <http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v01/i07/Walker/>
  • "Do you want to hear about it?" The Use of the Second Person in Electronic Fiction Ruth Nestvold <http://www.ruthnestvold.com/2ndper.htm> In this essay Nestvold takes up the uses of the second person point of view in much hyperfiction.

Reading Hypertext Literature--the issue of reading itself

  • Miall, David S., & Teresa Dobson. "Reading Hypertext and the Experience of Literature" Themes: Usability of digital information. Journal of Digital information, volume 2 issue 1 August 2001 <http://jodi.ecs.soton.ac.uk/Articles/v02/i01/Miall/> [August 11 2002].
  • Miall, David S. Reading Hypertext University of Alberta (Paper presented on July 13 2000) <http://www.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/Brazil/Brazil_hypertext.htm> [August 11 2002]. Here Miall takes up the question, "given what we know about reading and writing, and the psychological processes that support them, how effectively does hypertext facilitate or extend those processes?"
  • Miall, David S. "The Resistance of Reading: Romantic Hypertext and Pedagogy." Romanticism On the Net 16 (November 1999) <http://users.ox.ac.uk/~scat0385/reading.html> [August 11 2002] Miall cautions that there is a major disconnect between our understanding of the process of reading literature and the theories that seem to inform understanding of hypertext literature.
  • Miall, David S. Reading and Writing Hypertext (February 1997) <http://www.ualberta.ca/~dmiall/hypread.htm> [August 11 2002]
  • Kendall, Robert, "But I Know What I Like" (also in SIGWEB Newsletter, Vol. 8, No. 2, June 1999)
    <http://www.wordcircuits.com/comment/htlit_5.htm> In discussing criteria for what might constitute and aesthetics of literary hypertexts, Kendall takes up the processes of actually reading them.
  • Kendall, Robert and Jean-Hugues Réty, "Toward an Organic Hypertext" From Proceedings of the Eleventh ACM Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia (San Antonio, Texas, 2000) <http://wordcircuits.com/connect/ht2000.htm>
  • Dobson Teresa M., Mind the Gap: Reading Literary Hypertext <http://www.iath.virginia.edu/ach-allc.99/proceedings/dobson.html>
  • Partridge, Jeffrey. Reconsidering Reader Utopia in Hypertext Fiction <http://courses.nus.edu.sg/course/elljflp/ht/Essays/Partridge/index.htm>
  • Bernstein, Mark Hypertext Now: Electronic Reading <http://www.eastgate.com/HypertextNow/archives/Electronic.html>

General Hypertext Sites--theory, history, courses

Essential Electronic Journals

Collaborative story telling:

  • HyperTales http://hypertales.com/ "a collaborative hyperlinked story system. Sign On to add your own chapters, edit chapters, and rate chapters."
  • StorySprawl http://www.storysprawl.com/ --a site devoted to the creation of hyperfiction.
  • Interactive Fiction Playground <http://www.tangrams.com/IF/>

Directories

Peripheral links:

Issues of Form and hypertext http://www.well.com/user/mmcadams/basic.units.main.html

The Ebook and the Future of Reading <http://users.netmatters.co.uk/ju90/fut.htm> by Ju Gosling

Reading Online <http://www.readingonline.org/> A site devoted to k-12 uses of the online world for reading

The Reader's Ring <http://www.redsugar.com/reader2.html>

Short Story page from East of the Web <http://www.short-stories.co.uk/>

   

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