1995 NEH Summer Seminar for College Teachers "Literature
in Transition: The Impact of Information Technologies"
Director, N. Katherine Hayles
UCLA
June 26-August 18, 1995
Contents:
Description
Conceptual Itinerary (Provisional Syllabus)
Revised (Actual) Syllabus
List of Participants
Description
The goal of the seminar, broadly conceived, is to understand the implications
of electronic textuality for literary study. As computers become woven into
the fabric of everyday life for publishers, libraries, authors, readers,
teachers and students, the concepts that underlie literary study and the
practices that constitute it as a profession are undergoing remarkable and
far-reaching changes. Such fundamental questions as "What is an author?,"
"What is a text?," and 'What is a reader?" are asked with
fresh urgency and answered in new ways in light of these technologies. The
seminar will address these questions by exploring the implications of hypertext
for literary theory and pedagogy; by looking at the possibilities for narrative
offered by interactive fiction; by considering the implications of hypermedia
for libraries, publishing, and such credentialing procedures as tenure reviews
and promotions; by experiencing the aesthetic dimensions of the new media;
and by discussing the changing contexts in which literature is produced
and read as a result of the electronic word.
In addition to providing an overview of recent scholarship on electronic
textuality, the seminar will offer participants the opportunity to develop
their own electronic texts. Time will be provided for participants to pursue
their individual projects, and there are a number of avenues through which
they may do so. Some may wish to incorporate hypertext versions of major
texts within their courses; others may be interested in using computers
to teach writing and network with students; still others may be engaged
in exploring the theoretical and cultural implications for litrature of
the shift to electronic media. Because the textual, pedagogical, theoretical
and cultural implications of electronic textuality are intimately connected,
applications are welcome from all these areas of emphasis.
My approach to the seminar topic aims to combine wide-ranging reading of
critical and cultural texts with hands-on experience with electronic media,
especially hypertext. It will be useful, I think, to weigh the theoretical
claims that have been made for literature in electronic format against the
reality of interacting with hypertexts that seminar participants and others
have created. I anticipate that participants will come with varying degrees
of experience in electronic media. My expectation is that we will learn
from one another about this rapidly developing field. The seminar will have
available for its use a multimedia interactive studio with sixteen computer
workstations, each equipped with CD ROM player and tied into the master
station. The master station has an LCD projection system, so images that
appear on its screen can be seen by everyone. The room is also equipped
with a superb sound system, bringing text, image, and sound together. Participants
will probably want to bring their computers with them. In addition, UCLA
has available several clusters of Macintosh and IBM computers, along with
laser printers, that you may use if you wish. Each participant will be given
a computer account at UCLA that will permit you to use email and to access
the Internet.
My own interest in computer media dates from over a decade ago, when I offered
a course on "Computer Literacy," co-taught with a computer scientist,
that aimed to talk about modular programming and expository writing as complementary
modes of expression. As part of that course, we set up a local email network
with the students, who submitted assignments and corresponded with us electronically.
More recently, my work has explored the implications of computer media for
the literary corpus and the human body. My articles on the subject include
"The Materiality of Informatics" (in Configurations), "Embodied
Virtuality" (forthcoming in a volume entitled Immersed in Techology
), "Artificial Life and Literary Culture" (in Kritik ),
"Simulated Nature and Natural Simulations" (forthcoming in
Uncommon Ground ), "Boundary Disputes: Homeostasis and Reflexivity
in the Foundations of Cybernetics" (in Configurations ) and
"Virtual Bodies and Flickering Signifiers" (in October).
My book on the subject, Virtual Bodies: Information, Cybernetics, Literature
is scheduled to be completed this fall.
The seminar will be structured to facilitate work on individual projects
as well as collaborative discussions. The seminar will meet twice a week
for three hours each session, probably on Tuesday and Thursday mornings.
Each seminar participant will be asked to lead a discussion on a topic chosen
from the syllabus. Most of our discussions will probably be centered on
readings for the seminar; other possibilities include discussion of the
electronic texts we will be using. In addition, each participant will be
asked to pursue an independent research project that he or she can present
in summary form. This might be the draft of an essay or other writing, an
electronic document designed for use in a course and/or for publication,
an annotated bibliography for a course you want to teach to teach, or an
extensive outline or prospectus for a larger project such as a book. I will
be ready to assist in this research by giving feedback and suggestions throughout
the seminar and in the months following. I expect to meet individually with
each participant during the first two weeks of the seminar, and at least
once more during the closing weeks, in addition to any other meetings that
we may wish to arrange. Seminar participants will have access to the excellent
research facilities at UCLA, as well as to its renowned media and film archives
and to specialized libraries in music, the sciences, law, and other fields.
I would like to arrange discussions between seminar participants and well-known
people in the Los Angeles area who are interested in electronic media, including
the TV and film director Alex Singer, who is exploring the merger of interactive
media with the entertainment industry; Richard Lanham, author of The
Electronic Word; Robert Winter, author of prize-winning CD-ROMs on classical
music; Michael Heim, author of Electric Language; and Peter Lunenfeld,
coordinator of the Southern California Hypermedia Working Group. In addition
to our seminar meetings, time will be set aside for visits to the University
of Southern California, site of one of the country's first entirely electronic
library; to the Electronic Cafe in Santa Monica, which regularly hosts interactive
media events; and (depending on the interests of participants) joint meetings
with the Interactive Fiction SIG (Special Interest Group) and Virtual Reality
SIG. A wonderful bonus comes in August, when Los Angeles will host SIGGRAPH
'95, the huge trade show/conference for computer graphics, where virtually
all the newest state-of-the-art interactive technology available in this
country will be exhibited and demonstrated. Many other events will no doubt
be available, ranging from cyberspace art galleries to consultations with
editors from the Voyager Company, one of the leading publishing companies
for electronic texts.
Conceptual Itinerary
Week 1. Historical Perspectives on Electronic Textuality.
In this session, we will explore how the underlying premises and assumptions
of electronic textuality differ from those of print media. Of special interest
will be the construction of electronic textuality as a medium that partakes
both of writing and of orality. The main reading will be Jay Bolter's Writing
Space: The Comptuer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing. Selections
and references will be made to Walter Ong, Orality and Literacy: The
Technologizing of the Word; Eric Havelock, The Literate Revolution
in Greece and Its Cultural Consequences; Marshall McLuhan, The Gutenberg
Galaxy: The Making of Typographic Man; and Eugene Provenzo, Beyond
the Gutenberg Galaxy: Microcomputers and the Emergence of Post-Typographic
Culture.
Week 2. Hyptertext and Its Implications for Literary
Theory. This week will be devoted to understanding how hypertext changes
the experiences of writing, reading, and producing texts, from the changed
kinesthetic and visual relations to the political and ideological implications
of hypertext compared to print media. The central text will be George Landow's
Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology,
with discussion and references to Ted Nelson, Literary Machines,
Landow and Delany, Hypermedia and Literary Studies, Bernstein's
Hypertext '87 and Edward Barrett, Text, ConText, and Hypertext: Writing
with and for the Computer.
Week 3. The Theory and Practice of Hypertext Pedagogy.
This week's discussions will explore how hypertext changes teaching and
learning practices, compared to instruction based on print media. Increased
collaboration, the presence of sound and image as well as print, the decentralization
of authority in hypertext, and the different styles of learning it encourages
will be among the issues we consider. Reading for this week will focus on
instructional hypertexts developed for classroom use. Final selections will
depend on interests of the participants; possibilities include The Dickens
Web, The Milton Project, and An Interactive Macbeth. Additional
readings include Michael Joyce, "Siren Shapes," Elaine Brennan,
"Using the Computer to Right the Canon," and David Jonassen and
Heinz Mandl, Designing Hypertext/Hypermedia for Learning.
Week 4. Reading Interactive Fiction: Constructing and
Deconstructing Boundaries between Print and Electronic Hypertexts. Discussion
here will focus on how the reading experience of a print narrative structured
like a hypertext differs fom that of an electronic hypertext. Readings will
include Borges, "Garden of the Forking Paths and Milorad Pavic, Dictionary
of the Khazars, along with Michael Joyce's afternoon and Stuart
Moulthrop's hypertextual interpretation and performance of Borges's story,
Forking Paths: An Interaction after Jorge Luis Borges.
Week 5. Implications of Electronic Textuality for Professional
Practice. This week's discussion will explore how electronic media are
changing libraries, publication, credentialing practices such as tenure
and promotion, copyright, and academic freedom. Reading selections will
be made from the editorial policies of The Journal of Postmodern Culture;
Richard Lanham, The Electronic Word; Ethan Katsh, The Electronic
Media and the Transformation of Law; Ithiel de Sola Pool, Technologies
of Freedom, and Steven Levy, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution.
Week 6. Aesthetic Dimensions of Multimedia and Their
Implications for Literary Study. Discussion here will explore the aesthetic
dimensions of multimedia, comparing and constrasting them with print media.
The central text will be Richard Lanham's The Electronic Word, with
selections from Brenda Laurel, Computers as Theater, John Austin,
How To Do Things With Words, and Robert Winter, CD Compantion to
Beethoven's Sympony No. 9.
Week 7. Cultural Contexts for Understanding the Impact
of Information Technologies on Literary Studies. This week will be devoted
to exploring the larger cultural transformations that information technologies
are bringing about that affect the contexts in which literature is read
and interpreted. Texts will include selections from Jean Baudrillard, The
Ecstasy of Communication; Walter Ong, Rhetoric, Romance, and Technology;
Studies in the Interaction of Expression and Culture; Walter Wriston,
The Twilight of Sovereignty: How the Information Revolution is Transforming
our World; Neil Postman, Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to
Technology; and Katherine Hayles, "Virtual Bodies and Flickering
Signifiers."
Week 8. Integrating the Changing Shapes of Literature
in Our Teaching and Research. This week will feature presentation and
discussion of the participants' own research and teaching projects.
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