Module Information
Module Identifier
EN32230
Module Title
NARRATIVES AND NEW MEDIA
Academic Year
2008/2009
Co-ordinator
Semester
Intended for use in future years
Other Staff
Course Delivery
| Delivery Type | Delivery length / details |
|---|---|
| Seminars / Tutorials |
Assessment
| Assessment Type | Assessment length / details | Proportion |
|---|
Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of this module students should be able to:
Brief description
1. Narratives and New Media
This session questions the extent to which new media forms can be considered texts to be studied within the traditional discipline of English Literature, and offers key theoretical approaches and terms that are examined over the following weeks. This includes selected extracts from George Landow¿s Hypertext 3.0, Janet Murray¿s Hamlet in the Holodeck, Marie-Laure Ryan¿s Narratives Across Media, and N. Katherine Hayles¿s Writing Machines. This will also serve as an introduction to the distinctive aspects of the module, including the modes of assessment and teaching delivery utilised.
2. Technology as Trope 1: The Problems of Computer-Mediated Identity
Text: Jeanette Winterson, The Powerbook (2000).
As Winterson herself says when discussing The Powerbook, ¿There¿s been a lot of talk about the death of the book, but there is no death of the book, only a transformation of the book, both as artefact and as idea.¿ Through the collision of the virtual and the real, the use of intertextual ¿cover versions¿ and linguistic play, we will read The Powerbook to examine the various ways in which technology affects us as individuals, and introduce the profound effect that this can have upon how we write literature.
3. Technology as Trope 2: The Problems of Computer-Generated Texts
Text: Phillippe Vasset, Script Generator©®¿ (2004). Trans. Jane Metter.
This session examines the concept of computer-generated texts, exploring some of the software and linguistic principles utilised in their creation, using some sample text generators, and analysing a print-based text ostensibly written by a computer program, Script Generator©®¿. In so doing, we will address issues such as ¿programmed creativity¿ and the relationship between textual structure and originality to re-appraise the role that writers currently occupy.
4. Workshop 1: Critical Resources (Taught in Computer Room)
This session introduces some of the primary online resources, such as the website of the Electronic Literature Organisation and the University of Iowa¿s Digital Media Resources, and journals such as Computers and Composition Online and Writing Technologies. These resources will be central to the construction of the final essay. Through both face-to-face and online discussion, in group work we will explore the benefits and limitations of this form of computer-mediated communication through critical examination of the selected sources and websites.
5. Technology & Structure 1: Blogs and ¿The New Epistolary Form¿
Text: Eric Heisserer, The Dionaea House (2004).
Blogs have become commonplace Web 2.0 phenomena, with millions of people creating their own personal weblogs. Yet they retain potential for fictional purposes, and hark back to the epistolary prose form. Exploring one such online blog fiction, The Dionaea House, we will consider the role that absence (¿what is missing¿ from the narrative as presented) and mediation (the ¿who¿ and ¿how¿ of narration) play in the construction of such narratives, and their relationship to the epistolary form.
6. Technology & Structure 2: Hypertexts & Hypertextuality
Text: Shelley Jackson, My Body: A Wunderkammer & (1997).
Hypertexts offer new ways of understanding existing literary paradigms. Jackson¿s meditation on the relationship between the writer and her body finds expression through the very body of the online hypertext, My Body. Examining the ways in which hyperlinks affect the quality of the reading process and the sense of linear construction, this session examines hypertexts as both ¿text¿ and ¿body.¿
7. Workshop 2: Principles of Hyperlinked Essays (Taught in Computer Room)
This session acts as a tutor-supported writing workshop to introduce the basic design principles of hyperlinked essays, including incorporating images and diagrams, frequency and usage of hyperlinks, citation styles, and online copyright issues. The technological aspects of inserting hyperlinks and images are quite straightforward to achieve in programs such as MS Word, and so whilst some time will be spent on this to ensure that everybody can, the majority of the session will focus on the ¿intellectual¿ rather than practical ways in which this affects the production of critical work.
8. Technology & Interactivity 1: Interactive Fiction & Game Texts
Text: Nick Montfort, Ad Verbum (2000).
The principle of interactive fiction (IF), much like earlier incarnations from choose-your-own-adventure stories to Zork, is that the reader becomes explicitly part of the construction of the text. Analysing one such piece of online interactive fiction based upon an experiment by the literary group, Oulipo, we will explore the basis of interactivity with the literary text in terms of both IF and computer games studies.
9. Technology & Interactivity 2: Flash Fiction
Text: geniwate & Deena Larsen, The Princess Murderer (2003).
Flash fiction, fiction that utilises Adobe Flash to provide rich multimedia content in webpages (not the ¿short short story¿ also called flash fiction), is often used to create dynamic interactive online texts. Utilising the principles of interactivity and structure discussed in earlier sessions, we will examine the difficulties of reading / viewing / playing the literary text in relation to one example of flash fiction, The Princess Murderer.
10. The (Electronic) Future of Literature?
This session concludes the module by asking students to consider the impact that technologies have had upon writing and reading texts to date, and to explore the potential developments that current Web 2.0¿even Web 3.0¿technologies might prompt. This session will consist of a series of short presentations and a roundtable debate, and utilise the blog postings made over the duration of the module.
This session questions the extent to which new media forms can be considered texts to be studied within the traditional discipline of English Literature, and offers key theoretical approaches and terms that are examined over the following weeks. This includes selected extracts from George Landow¿s Hypertext 3.0, Janet Murray¿s Hamlet in the Holodeck, Marie-Laure Ryan¿s Narratives Across Media, and N. Katherine Hayles¿s Writing Machines. This will also serve as an introduction to the distinctive aspects of the module, including the modes of assessment and teaching delivery utilised.
2. Technology as Trope 1: The Problems of Computer-Mediated Identity
Text: Jeanette Winterson, The Powerbook (2000).
As Winterson herself says when discussing The Powerbook, ¿There¿s been a lot of talk about the death of the book, but there is no death of the book, only a transformation of the book, both as artefact and as idea.¿ Through the collision of the virtual and the real, the use of intertextual ¿cover versions¿ and linguistic play, we will read The Powerbook to examine the various ways in which technology affects us as individuals, and introduce the profound effect that this can have upon how we write literature.
3. Technology as Trope 2: The Problems of Computer-Generated Texts
Text: Phillippe Vasset, Script Generator©®¿ (2004). Trans. Jane Metter.
This session examines the concept of computer-generated texts, exploring some of the software and linguistic principles utilised in their creation, using some sample text generators, and analysing a print-based text ostensibly written by a computer program, Script Generator©®¿. In so doing, we will address issues such as ¿programmed creativity¿ and the relationship between textual structure and originality to re-appraise the role that writers currently occupy.
4. Workshop 1: Critical Resources (Taught in Computer Room)
This session introduces some of the primary online resources, such as the website of the Electronic Literature Organisation and the University of Iowa¿s Digital Media Resources, and journals such as Computers and Composition Online and Writing Technologies. These resources will be central to the construction of the final essay. Through both face-to-face and online discussion, in group work we will explore the benefits and limitations of this form of computer-mediated communication through critical examination of the selected sources and websites.
5. Technology & Structure 1: Blogs and ¿The New Epistolary Form¿
Text: Eric Heisserer, The Dionaea House (2004).
Blogs have become commonplace Web 2.0 phenomena, with millions of people creating their own personal weblogs. Yet they retain potential for fictional purposes, and hark back to the epistolary prose form. Exploring one such online blog fiction, The Dionaea House, we will consider the role that absence (¿what is missing¿ from the narrative as presented) and mediation (the ¿who¿ and ¿how¿ of narration) play in the construction of such narratives, and their relationship to the epistolary form.
6. Technology & Structure 2: Hypertexts & Hypertextuality
Text: Shelley Jackson, My Body: A Wunderkammer & (1997).
Hypertexts offer new ways of understanding existing literary paradigms. Jackson¿s meditation on the relationship between the writer and her body finds expression through the very body of the online hypertext, My Body. Examining the ways in which hyperlinks affect the quality of the reading process and the sense of linear construction, this session examines hypertexts as both ¿text¿ and ¿body.¿
7. Workshop 2: Principles of Hyperlinked Essays (Taught in Computer Room)
This session acts as a tutor-supported writing workshop to introduce the basic design principles of hyperlinked essays, including incorporating images and diagrams, frequency and usage of hyperlinks, citation styles, and online copyright issues. The technological aspects of inserting hyperlinks and images are quite straightforward to achieve in programs such as MS Word, and so whilst some time will be spent on this to ensure that everybody can, the majority of the session will focus on the ¿intellectual¿ rather than practical ways in which this affects the production of critical work.
8. Technology & Interactivity 1: Interactive Fiction & Game Texts
Text: Nick Montfort, Ad Verbum (2000).
The principle of interactive fiction (IF), much like earlier incarnations from choose-your-own-adventure stories to Zork, is that the reader becomes explicitly part of the construction of the text. Analysing one such piece of online interactive fiction based upon an experiment by the literary group, Oulipo, we will explore the basis of interactivity with the literary text in terms of both IF and computer games studies.
9. Technology & Interactivity 2: Flash Fiction
Text: geniwate & Deena Larsen, The Princess Murderer (2003).
Flash fiction, fiction that utilises Adobe Flash to provide rich multimedia content in webpages (not the ¿short short story¿ also called flash fiction), is often used to create dynamic interactive online texts. Utilising the principles of interactivity and structure discussed in earlier sessions, we will examine the difficulties of reading / viewing / playing the literary text in relation to one example of flash fiction, The Princess Murderer.
10. The (Electronic) Future of Literature?
This session concludes the module by asking students to consider the impact that technologies have had upon writing and reading texts to date, and to explore the potential developments that current Web 2.0¿even Web 3.0¿technologies might prompt. This session will consist of a series of short presentations and a roundtable debate, and utilise the blog postings made over the duration of the module.
Notes
This module is at CQFW Level 6