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A visible
presence for some two decades, electronic
literature has already produced many works
that deserve the rigorous scrutiny critics
have long practiced with print literature.
Only now, however, with Electronic
Literature by N. Katherine Hayles, do we
have the first systematic survey of the
field and an analysis of its importance,
breadth, and wide-ranging implications for
literary study.
Hayles’s
book is designed to help electronic
literature move into the classroom. Her
systematic survey of the field addresses
its major genres, the challenges it poses
to traditional literary theory, and the
complex and compelling issues at stake.
She develops a theoretical framework for
understanding how electronic literature
both draws on the print tradition and
requires new reading and interpretive
strategies. Grounding her approach in the
evolutionary dynamic between humans and
technology, Hayles argues that neither the
body nor the machine should be given
absolute theoretical priority. Rather, she
focuses on the interconnections between
embodied writers and users and the
intelligent machines that perform
electronic texts.
Through
close readings of important works, Hayles
demonstrates that a new mode of narration
is emerging that differs significantly
from previous models. Key to her argument
is the observation that almost all
contemporary literature has its genesis as
electronic files, so that print becomes a
specific mode for electronic text rather
than an entirely different medium. Hayles
illustrates the implications of this
condition with three contemporary novels
that bear the mark of the
digital.
Included
with the book is a CD, The Electronic
Literature Collection, Volume 1,
containing sixty new and recent works of
electronic literature with keyword index,
authors’ notes, and editorial
headnotes. Representing multiple
modalities of electronic
writing—hypertext fiction, kinetic
poetry, generative and combinatory forms,
network writing, codework, 3D, narrative
animations, installation pieces, and Flash
poetry—the ELC 1 encompasses
comparatively low-tech work alongside
heavily coded pieces. Complementing the
text and the CD-ROM is a website offering
resources for teachers and students,
including sample syllabi, original essays,
author biographies, and useful links.
Together, the three elements provide an
exceptional pedagogical
opportunity.
N.
Katherine
Hayles
is John Charles Hillis Professor of
Literature and Distinguished Professor in
the departments of English and
Design/Media Arts at the University of
California, Los Angeles.
—
Produced under the aegis of the Electronic
Literature Organization, and edited by
Hayles, Nick Montfort, Scott Rettberg, and
Stephanie Strickland, The Electronic
Literature Collection, Volume 1, brings
together numerous genres by many of the
most innovative writers in the field. The
ELC 1 runs cross-platform on Macintosh,
PC, or Linux.
Visit the
related website at
http://newhorizons.eliterature.org for
postings, classroom materials, and
more.
ADVANCE
PRAISE: “No critic, save N. Katherine
Hayles, has the wide grasp of literary
criticism, new media history and
technology, cyberculture and its
philosophical implications, and the
interplay between electronic and print
imaginative writing. Now, in the five
straightforward, readable chapters of
Electronic Literature, she supplies the
tools and builds the contexts necessary
for everyone to grasp the importance of
her topic and integrate it into her or his
own knowledge base. For those new to
electronic literature, it provides an
intellectual, historical, and technical
basis for inserting it into the
curriculum; for those familiar with the
digital arts and electronic literature, it
provides a succinct overview of what has
been accomplished in the field and what
remains to bring this work from the hands
of practitioners and theorists into the
classroom. The book and CD package will be
snapped up by scholars and students
alike.” —Dee Morris, University
of Iowa
“In
Electronic Literature, N. Katherine Hayles
has delivered a wonderfully structured
synthetic overview of writers, texts,
critics, and publication venues for the
field of electronic literature. In it, she
has managed to articulate a non-canonical
canon, a body of work and set of ideas
that are flexible rather than fixed,
inclusive rather than exclusive.”
—Rita Raley, University of
California, Santa Barbara
“Kate
Hayles has been there since the beginning.
She helped formulate the field of digital
literature. All readers will be charmed by
her new book; high school and college
literature and art teachers, in
particular, will find this book (and the
CD) immediately helpful to introducing
students to creative writing in a new
media mode.” —Thom Swiss,
University of Minnesota
“Kate
Hayles stays with a text, whether
electronic or otherwise, like almost no
other reader or player, inhabiting each
work with care and caring, transforming
its material specificity to embodied sense
and sensuality rather than a hollow
category. In the course of defining a
field she has set it abloom and in the
process refreshed our imagination.”
—Michael Joyce, Vassar
College
Praise for
the ELC 1: “. . . [T]his is
an essential collection. Anyone interested
in the field of electronic literature
should take the trouble to get it. . . .
Some of this material is priceless, and it
may not be available on the Web
indefinitely.” —Edward Picot,
The Hyperliterature Exchange
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