Digital Aesthetics in Literature

Digital Aesthetics in Literature
Robin Bagon
 

George P. Landow describes a “paradigm shift” in Western thought, arguing that “we must abandon conceptual systems founded on ideas of center, margin, hierarchy and linearity and replace them by ones of multilinearity, nodes, links and networks.” This course explores the varied ways in which literature engages with digital culture to produce a range of aesthetics which reflect and even anticipate the networked structures of the digital age. We will begin by examining the concept of aesthetics and the “purpose” of artworks and will lay the critical groundwork through Walter Benjamin’s classic text on “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” Alongside theoretical works, we will read a wide range of electronic and print-based texts while considering key questions such as the end of books, linearity and non-linearity, experimentation, the avant garde, and the operation of structures of power. Students will be encouraged to read widely and to develop personal responses.
 

From week two onwards, a student or pair of students will present a work of digital literature. This can be from the digital anthology http://collection.eliterature.org/ but does not have to be. The presentations will give an overview and appraisal of the text in the light of critical frameworks from the wider course. The presentation will be assessed, comprising 20% of the final mark. The Assessment criteria are: 1.quality of communication; 2.overview of the electronic text; 3.critical engagement.
The remaining 80% of the mark will be awarded through a final essay.
 

Attendance is compulsory. Failure to attend more than three sessions, for any reason, will result in you failing the course. Note that there are 20 sessions, two each week.
1. What is literature and what are literary aesthetics? (5th March)

1. Terry Eagleton “Introduction: What is Literature?” in Introduction to Literary Theory (1983)
2. Peter Lamarque “Literature” in The Routledge Companion to Aesthetics (2001).
3. Jacques Derrida “This Strange Institution Called Literature” in Acts of Literature (1989). (Just the first ten pages, but feel free to read it all!)

2. Art in the age of mechanical reproduction (19th March)

1.  Walter Benjamin “Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction.” (1936)
2. Terry Eagleton “Form and Content” in Marxism and Literary Criticism

3. Introduction to electronic literature (25th March)

1. Catherine Hayles, “Electronic Literature: What is it?” in, Electronic Literature (2008)
2. George P. Landow, “Hypertext: An Introduction” in Hypertext 3.0; Critical Theory and New Media in an Era of Globalization (2006)

4. Nonlinearity l (2nd April)

1. George P. Landow “Hypertext and Critical Theory,” in Hypertext 3.0; Critical Theory and New Media in an Era of Globalization (2006)
2. Espen J. Aarseth “Nonlinearity and Literary Theory” (1994)
3. Jorge Luis Bourges “The Garden of Forking Paths” (1941)

5. Nonlinearity ll (23rd April)

1. Andrew Bennett and Nicholas Royle “The Beginning” and “The Ending,” in Literature, Criticism and Theory (2009)
2. Lawrence Sterne, Tristram Shandy. (1759) (Chapters 1-10 – about 20 pages)

6. Tree of Codes (30th April. There will be a break in studies from 12.00-13.00 for the Remembrance Day ceremony.)

1. N. Katherine Hayles “Combining Close and Distant Reading: Jonathan Safran Foer’s Tree of Codes and the Aesthetic of Bookishness” PMLA 128.1 (2013)
2. Jonathan Safran Foer Tree of Codes (2010) (There is a digitised version of the book at http://digitalhumanities.org:8081/dhq/vol/8/4/000192/resources/source/treeofcodes.html)
3. Aaron Mauro “Versioning Loss: Jonathan Safran Foer’s Tree of Codes and the Materiality of Digital Publishing” Digital Humanities Quarterly. Volume 8 Number 4 (2014)
4. http://digitalhumanities.org:8081/dhq/vol/8/4/000192/000192.html

7. Hyperfiction (7th May)

1. Michael Joyce “Siren Shapes; Exploratory and Constructive Hypertexts,” (1988)
2. Stuart Moulthrop Victory Garden (1995) http://www.eastgate.com/VG/VGStart.html

8. Games (14th May)

1. Noah Wardrip-Fruin “Computer Game Fictions” in Expressive Processing (2009)
2. Jonas Heide Smith “The Road not Taken - The How’s and Why’s of Interactive Fiction” Game Research (2000) http://game-research.com/index.php/articles/the-road-not-taken-the-hows-and-whys-of-interactive-fiction/
3. Her Story http://www.herstorygame.com/

9. Twitterature (21st May)

1. David Mitchel “The Right Sort” (2014) https://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/14/the-right-sort-david-mitchells-twitter-short-story
2. Geoff Ryman, 253. (A Novel) http://www.ryman-novel.com/

10. Preparation for final assignment (28th May) Students will share their works in progress