Jessica Pressman
COURSE DESCRIPTION
Digital technologies are changing all aspects of how we access, analyze, and conceptualize information. This course investigates how this technology and the “information culture” it produces affect the way we read, study, and understand literature. Our quarter will be motivated by the following questions: What happens to literature and “the literary” in an age of digital technology? And, what is digital literature and how do we contextualize it within a history of literature and literary aesthetic?
Early prophecies about the “end of books” created a wedge between literature and new media, but instead of usurping the tradition and aesthetic of print literature the Web and authoring programs like Flash and Shockwave have instead stimulated creative outbursts of experimentation in narrative and poetic forms. We will examine a varied collection of electronic literature and genres in order to understand the current state of this new literary field and its relation to print literature and traditional concepts of literary study.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
The topic and “texts” of this course provide an entry point into investigating particular aspects of the general category of “the digital” and its relation to the general category of “the literary.” For example, we will examine the relationship between text and image, the concept of original or “aura” vs. the copy or reproduction, and the shrinking difference between such rapidly converging fields as literature and film. We will read literary works in conjunction with critical essays in order to contextualize and analyze the rhetoric surrounding the subject of “literature” in relation to digital media, read a variety of genres of electronic literature, and explore the continuations and transformations that digital technologies present for literature as an art form and cultural category.
This is a literature course: it focuses on analyzing literary works. This is also a writing-intensive course. You will sharpen your critical thinking, reading, and writing skills by applying them to multimodal, multimedia literature. The result will, hopefully, be an expansion of these abilities and as well as your appreciation of the relevance of literature and literary training.
REQUIRED TEXTS
*Course Reader
All electronic works are either available online or on reserve in the English Reading Room
A Note on Technological Requirements:
Most of these works are available online and require a wide bandwidth and strong browser capability. A UCLA Internet connection will work perfectly. Some works include sound, and one is only available on a Mac. These specificities require forethought and planning on your part in order to prepare for class. Computers are available in on-campus labs, and any questions or concerns about access should be presented to me before the reading assignment is due.
Accessible at http://ecampus.humnet.ucla.edu
Login: your 9-digit student ID number
Password: the last four digits of your social security number
REQUIREMENTS
Web-Postings: 30%
Presentation: 15%
Web-based Essay Project: 40%
Participation: 15%
Weekly Web Postings 30% (6 postings= 5% per posting):
As this is a class on digital literature, we will employ the technology of the Web message board to stimulate and extend our in-class discussions. You will be required to post 6 thoughtful responses to our Weekly Web about the works we read. These responses must be posted 24 hours in advance of our meeting time , which means noon on Tuesdays.
Presentation 15%: During the course of the seminar, you will prepare a short (15 minute) presentation on one work of electronic literature which you have discovered and read. You will introduce it to the class in a presentation that 1) summarizes the work, 2) analyzes it in relation to the issues explored in class, and 3) provides a critical judgment on it as literature.
Web-based Essay Project 40%: This 4-5 page paper will be presented in digital format. You will propose your own paper topic, meet with me to discuss the structure, and receive technical support from the Center for Digital Humanities to implement the digital format of this creative-critical analysis. The final projects will be posted to our class website to create an exhibition (of sorts) of our learning experience.
Participation 15%: This is a seminar, not a lecture class. As such, the success and productivity of the course depends on the participation and preparation of each individual for each meeting. Together, we will collaboratively explore the subject of the class “Digital Literature” in depth, working together to pursue questions, analyze texts, and proffer critical connections and conclusions.
In order to do so, you must come to class ready to participate. This means you must have read each assigned work extensively and thoughtfully. Some of these works do not have traditional endings, and you cannot simply rely on a page number as a sign of completed reading, while some are deceptively simple or short. You must allocate enough time to get a deep sense of the text, perhaps even engaging in multiple readings.
Adequate preparation includes not only reading the work but being prepared to discuss it. Questions, comments, ideas, and even tangents are all welcome in the classroom. You are expected to both talk and listen during each session.
As this is a small seminar, unexcused absences will not be tolerated.
Your participation grade also includes a mandatory Conference: You are required to meet with me at least once during the quarter. The purpose of this meeting is for us to get to know one another and to push you to take responsibilty for your learning needs. I encourage you to utilize my office hours or set up an appointment with me to discuss any questions, ideas, or concerns about the reading, the subject of the course, or even the very relevance of studying literature!
Late assignments and papers will be penalized 1/3 of a grade for each day they are late. (For example, one day late drops an A paper to an A-). Assignments over a week late will not be accepted and will automatically receive an F. In order to pass the course, you must complete all course requirements.
A NOTE ON PLAGIARISM
Plagiarism is a serious offense and is looked upon as such by the university and by me. The English Department Style Sheet defines plagiarism as “the use of another's ideas or words as if they were one's own.” If you borrow an idea, whether from a book, magazine, or the web, you must “either express it in language thoroughly your own and acknowledge the borrowing” with a citation, or “indicate the exact extent of your debt to the actual words of your source. . . by enclosing it in quotation marks and acknowledging your debt with a note” (5). Using such material without giving credit to the original author constitutes plagiarism. Plagiarism, like other forms of academic dishonesty, is a serious offense. If you are caught plagiarizing, the matter will be referred to the Dean of Students for further action. Ultimately, you could be suspended or expelled from the University for academic dishonesty.
READING SCHEDULE
Each week we will read one primary work of electronic literature and at least one critical essay (you will see them separated below, with creative works above critical readings and denoted by the ~). The goal here is to create a critical context for reading the literature and discussing its relevance.
Week 1: Introductions: What is Digital Literature? and What is New about New Media?
January 11: As an introduction to the field of electronic literature and our exploration of it, we will read a few theoretical essays that introduce the major themes of the field: the role of technology on literature and the question of what is actually “new” about new media.
~ Erik Loyer's Chroma http://www.marrowmonkey.com
Jeffrey Masten, Peter Stallybrass, and Nancy Vickers, Introduction to Language Machines (Routledge 1997): 1-6
Robert Coover, “The End of Books” ( NY Times article, 1992)
Week 2: Hypertext, its Hope and Hype
January 18: Hypertext was the earliest and predominant form of electronic literature. With evident continuities to print literature and lots of hype about reader-control, hypertext is an important genre and historical moment in digital literature. What is hypertext? What promises did it hold out for new media and digital literature? And were they fulfilled?
~Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl (Eastgate Systems, 1995): CD-Rom on reserve in ERR.
George Landow, from Hypertext 2.0 (John Hopkins, 1997 [1992]): 3-8, 20-22, 24-25, 30-32, 90-91, 104-5
Katherine Hayles, “Flickering Connectivities in Shelley Jackson's Patchwork Girl: The Importance of Media-Specific Analysis” ( Postmodern Culture 2000)
Student Presentations begin
Week 3: Responses and Remediations
January 25: How do works of electronic literature use the traditional literary canon as both a means for validating their placement within a literary history and as a launching pad for rejecting this past?
~Judd Morrissey's The Jew's Daughter http://www.thejewsdaughter.com/
“Time, Text, Typography” and its links to Concrete Poetry at UbuWeb, http://www.poemsthatgo.com/gallery/winter2004/print_article.htm
Espen Aarseth, Cybertext ( Johns Hopkins, 1997): “Introduction” (1-6, 17-23)
Additional (Optional) Reading :
Debate about Cybertext in electronic book review : Montfort, Hayles, Luesebrink, Eskelinen, Hayles--http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/electropoetics/cyberdebates
Week 4: Literature or Film?: E-lit in Relation to other Media Forms
February 1: With animation programs like Flash and Shockwave, words can be made to move and be heard as well as seen and read. What are the effects of these technologies on the way we read, analyze, and define “literature” as well as distinguish it from such artistic forms?
~Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries, Dakota http://www.yhchang.com/
~Ingrid Ankerson and Megan Sapnar, “While Chopping Red Peppers” http://www.poemsthatgo.com/gallery/spring2000/redpeppers/start.htm
Jay David Bolter and Richard Grusin, e xcerpts from Remediation (MIT Press, 1999): “Introduction”(1-15), Chapter 1 (21-24, 31-34, 40-41, 44-50)
Lev Manovich, excerpts from Language of New Media (MIT Press, 2001): “Introduction” (8-11), Chapter 1: “What is New Media?” (27-39, 45-48)
Additional (Optional) Reading : Other works by Young-hae Chang Heavy Industries
Week 5: Networked and Novel
February 8: The Internet is a network of computers that operates across electronic channels and geographic locations. How does this distributed situation and the speed on which it relies influence the literary output and our engagement with it?
~Deena Larsen, Disappearing Rain http://www.deenalarsen.net/rain/
~Jody Zellen, Ghost City http://www.ghostcity.com/
Katherine Hayles, Writing Machines, Ch. 2 (MIT Mediawork Pamphlet Series, 2002)
Week 6: Online and Real-time
February 15: One of the aspects of digital literature that differentiates it from print text is that is that is programmed in algorithmic computer code and emerges in across circuits in real-time. Electronic texts have layers of code and text, not just what we read onscreen. How does this situation influence the aesthetics of the literature and our strategies for reading it?
~ Geniwate, “Concatenation” http://www.idaspoetics.com.au/generative/generative.html
~ Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Adam Chapman, Brion Moss, and Duane Whitehurst, The Impermanence Agent-- http://www.impermanenceagent.com/agent/
Noah Wardrip-Fruin and Brion Moss, excerpts from “The Impermanence Agent: Project and Context” (Reader and online http://www.impermanenceagent.com/agent/essay2/)
Noah Wardrip-Fruin, “Hypermedia, Eternal Life, and the Impermanence Agent” (Reader and online http://www.impermanenceagent.com/agent/essay.html)
Week 7: Games and/vs . Literature
February 22: The question of “interactivity” is central to questions about what is new in new media, and it produces a central issue: distinguishing between literature and games.
~Natalie Bookchin, “The Intruder” http://www.poemsthatgo.com/gallery/fall2003/intruder/index.html
First Person, section on Ludology (35-38, 45-55)
Browse Videogame Theory Online journal-- http://ludology.org
Presentation of Plans for Final Projects
Week 8: Literary Criticism
March 1: Based on our examination of the field of electronic literature, how can we assess the ramifications on literary studies? How are the ways in which we read, analyze, and write about literature changing through our engagements with digital literature?
~Linda Carroli and Josephine Wilson, Water always writes in plural http://ensemble.va.com.au/water/
~ Talan Memmott, “Berth of V.ness” http://www.uiowa.edu/~iwp/newmedia/gallery/talan_memmott.html
Walter Benjamin, "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" (1935)
Matt Kirschenbaum, “ Materiality and Matter and Stuff: What Electronic Texts Are Made Of” (2001) (Reader and online at
http://www.electronicbookreview.com/thread/electropoetics/sited
Browse electronic book review http://www.electronicbookreview.com/
Week 9: Immersion, Virtual Reality, and the Future of Literature
March 8: In this final week of reading, we will look at works that employ the immersive quality of digital technologies and point towards a potential future for literature that occupies the space of embodied Virtual Reality.
~John Cayley “ River Island ” (Mac only) Available for download from http://www.shadoof.net/in/riverisland.html
~Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Sascha Becker, Josh Carroll, Robert Coover,
Shawn Greenlee, and Andrew McClain, Summary of VR Installation “Screen” (2003)
Interview with Noah Wardrip-Fruin, The Iowa Review Web (Reader or online) http://www.uiowa.edu/~iareview/tirweb/feature/cave/#
Interview and Quicktime movies of Screen
Camille Utterback, “Unusual Positions—Embodied Interaction with Symbolic Spaces” and Responses by Matt Gorbet and Adrianne Wortzel, (First Person , 218-226)
Week 10: New Readings and Conclusions
March 15: We will conclude with your presentations about works of electronic literature that you have discovered and find interesting. Your presentations will expand the scope of the class and serve as a manner for concluding it.
~Morrissey and Talley, My name is Captain, Captain (Eastgate, CD-Rom): on reserve in ERR.
Final Web-based Project Due: Presentations of Projects in class and Projects Posted Online