English 111. Hypertext and Literary Theory (Old EL 115 or 116)

Professor Landow

Although English 111 demands no previous knowledge of computing, this is not a course for the tame or the timid, and members of the course can expect to call into question their basic assumptions about reading, writing, creativity, technology, theory, and . . . literature.

Hypertext -- text composed of electronically linked words and images intended to be read on a computer screen -- radically changes the way we experience reading and writing in ways that have much to do with recent critical theory. Contemporary theory, particularly poststructuralism, and contemporary computing technology illuminate each other, for both in part involve reactions against the strengths and limits of book technology and print culture. Both thereby exemplify what Derrida terms "the death of the book." Whereas postructuralism theorizes hypertext, hypertext in turn acts as a laboratory for theory, and by embodying crucial notions of contemporary theory, hypertext makes some particularly difficult ideas of Barthes, Bahktin, Derrida, and others easier to comprehend. The course will examine the convergence of contemporary critical theory and technology with particular reference to the implications of hypertext for conceptions of authorship, text, relations of word and image, literary structure, power, and the literary canon.

The class will read contemporary theory, discussions of hypertext, and works of literature that illuminate and are illuminated by both. Readings, some of which we shall encounter in both print and electronic form, will include all or part of the following: Roland Barthes, S/Z and Writing Degree Zero, J. David Bolter, Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing, Jorge Luis Borges, "The Garden of the Forking Paths," Vannevar Bush, "The Way We May Think," Julio Cortáàzar, Hopscotch, Italo Calvino, If on a Winter's Night a Traveler, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guittari's Plateaus, Jacques Derrida, Dissemination, Michel Foucault, "What is an Author?," George P. Landow, Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology, Ted Nelson, Literary Machines, Gregory Ulmer, Teletheory and Heuretics; The Logic of Discovery, and Nicole Yankelovich, Norman Meyrowitz, and Andries van Dam's "Reading and Writing the Electronic Book."

In keeping with the claim that hypertext serves as a laboratory for postructuralist and related theory, the class will work with various hypertext systems or environments, including Storyspace and the World Wide Web. Exercises for the course, which individual students will tailor to their own interests, emphasize exploration and creativity. During earlier iterations of this course, its members produced a wide range of projects involving (variously) relations of electronic words and image, translations of print into electronic text, explorations of argument and fiction in this new medium, and hypertextual implementations and deconstructions of works by Derrida and Barthes.

In addition to regular class meetings, the course involves a lab Wednesday 7-10 pm.



Cyberspace Web Hypertext