Hayles+MSA

Hayles, N. Katherine. Electronic Literature - What Is it? Ch. 1. //Electronic Literature: New Horizons for the Literary//. 1-42

Critical Article Presentation

Ken Sherwood

"Born digital" Literature is processed by the "specificities of digital media" (3), so that it both "partak[es] of literary tradition and introdu[ces] crucial transformations" (3). Readers bring reception habits formed by print to build on and modify the literary past, while also intersecting with (so-called) non-literary zones of "computer games, film, animations... and graphic design" among others. (4) The use of "code" (i.e. programmed instructions executed by a computer) in digital literature may be the simplest way of distinguishing it from print literature. Various uses of code produce some of the emerging genres of: hypertext (6), interactive fiction (8), 3-D spaces (11), site-specific and mobile works (12), and generative art (18). At the same time as we want to claim this for literary study, we recognize that "the multimodality of digital art works challenges writers, users, and critics to bring together diverse expertise and interpretive traditions so that the aesthetic strategies and possibilities of electronic literature may be fully understood" (22).
 * Overview**


 * Commentary**
 * The genres offered are not neat categories, and individual works could easily be reconsidered in terms of their relationship to classic literary and non-literary forms (drama, fiction, poetry, game, music, etc.**) or their degree of "codedness" or the agency they offer readers/players. The challenge is to arrive at a framework to help us appreciate the familiar and the strange in new works while, at the same time, not allowing the frame to reify into a constraining category. **More problematic even than this risk is that fact that many of the so-called genres of digital literature are significantly shaped by the particular technologies upon which they rely (animated "Flash" poetry for example).** This suggests, at the very least, that the "creative" process is engaged not only with //machine thinking// but risks becoming hostage to corporate product development.

Gregory Ulmer calls for a new critical practice of "electracy" (23). How do we do this? What are some of the risks in emphasizing "ways in which electronic literature both extends and disrupts print traditions" (30)? What is there to keep us from simply "reading" digital works in literary fashion?
 * For Discussion**