Digital

Literature
Beyond Atoms and Bits

Lic. Mariana Ferrarelli

Universidad Nacional del Litoral, June 2012
Overview

a. Contexts
b. Digital Literature: Towards a
Definition
c. Social Practices
d. Sample Texts
a. Contexts

“Por lo tanto, la cultura digital y su

entorno siempre fluctuante deben
examinarse como un conjunto de
prácticas discursivas que tienen sus
propias normas y convenciones, que
tienden a debilitar y a perturbar las
categorías y los valores establecidos.”
(Doueihi; 2010)
a. Contexts

Historical Social
Context Context

DigiLit

Technological
Context
a. Historical Context 1:
Modernity/Postmodernity
Modernity Progress & Rationality
Hierarchy
Metanarratives:
Marxism; Structuralism

Universal Theory which provides a

unified schema (Lyotard; 1984)
a. Historical Context 2:
Modernity/Postmodernity
Postmodernity Irrationality
Multilinearity
Destruction of
Metanarratives
Fragmentation
Liquid Modernity (Bauman; 2005)

“Nowherevilles”
a. Social Context:
Information Society
Information Society

Information Anxiety (Hurst; 2007)

Noisy media environment
3 options: Stress
Rejection
Bit literacy

MEDIA DIET
Active Portfolio
a. Technological Context:
New Media & Digital Natives
Traditional Media: Controlled by adults
Unidirectional
Hierarchical / Inflexible / Centralised

New Media: Allow for autonomy

Interactive / Flexible

Children can inquire, discuss, play, shop,

ridicule, inform themselves, interact
 a. Technological Context:
New Media & Digital Natives

María Jesús Sanhuesa George Hotz

a. Contexts

Fragmentation Infoxication

Digital
Natives
 b. Digital Literature
“I recently visited the headquarters of one of
America's top five integrated circuit manufacturers. I
was asked to sign in and, in the process, was asked
whether I had a laptop computer with me. Of course I
did. The receptionist asked for the model and serial
number and for its value. "Roughly, between one and
two million dollars," I said. "Oh, that cannot be, sir,"
she replied. "What do you mean? Let me see it." I
showed her my old PowerBook and she estimated its
value at $2,000. She wrote down that amount and I
was allowed to enter the premises. The point is that
while the atoms were not worth that much, the bits
were almost priceless.”
(Negroponte; 1995)
b. Digital Literature:
Towards a (re)definition
 Material Support:
ATOMS
BITS (Negroponte; 1995)
 Structure:

LINEAR
NON-LINEAR
b. Digital Literature:
Towards a (re)definition

ATOMS BITS

LINEAR NON-LINEAR
b. Digital Literature:
Print

ATOMS BITS

LINEAR NON-LINEAR

PRINT Literature
PRINT

 Stable: unified / fixed

 Linear: Aristotelian plot

 Predictable

 Writer-centred: tyrannical / individual

 Broadcast-like: univocal
b. Digital Literature:

ATOMS BITS

LINEAR NON-LINEAR

DigiLit: Electronic (HYPER)TEXT

DIGITAL
 Born digital
 Interactive
 Multimedia Multisensorial
 Unstable: fragmented / in motion
 Multilinear: multidirectional
 Writer & reader –centred: democratic /
collective / participatory
 p2p: Multivocal / Maze-like
 Screen: note - link
 Unpredictable: Hypertext as Rhizome
(Landow; 2006)
DIGITAL
 Multiple layers of meaning:

 Verbal Language
 Images (photographs & drawings)
 Use of colour
 Light
 Camera Shots
 Movement
 Animation
 Sound (diegetic & non-diegetic)
 c. Social Practices
"Con la cibercultura el lugar de la obra se
dispersa. Los roles se reconfiguran y ya no
se puede hablar de un escritor y de un
lector como entidades separadas, sino de
un escrilector, alguien que despliega una
inteligencia colectiva y produce sus
propios textos en forma casi simultánea
con su recepción".
Jaime Alejandro Rodríguez Ruiz (2003)
c. Social Practices
 “The medium is the message“
 Wheel
 Camera
 New Technologies

 Social Practices
 Writing
 Reading
 Education
c. Social Practices:
Writing
 Transference of authorial power
 Shared with Reader & Programmer

 Eroded role

 Collaborative Writing (Text, image,

sound & animation)
c. Social Practices:
Reading
 Active / Intrusive role - PROSUMER
 Merging with Writer’s role

 Personal & Individual

BUT ALSO Social &

Collective
 Site of choice & empowerment
c. Social Practices:
Education
 Learner-centred classroom

 P Professions
 Teacher as facilitator & CURATOR

http://digilit-reflections.posterous.com/
http://electronic-art-forms.posterous.com/
 d. Sample Texts
 Luke’s Message, by Kate Pullinger & Cris
Joseph
 Paths Crossing, by Kate Pullinger, Cris Joseph &
participants

 Entre Ville, by J. R. Carpenter

 These waves of girls, by Caitlin Fisher

 Gone Fishing, by Paul Seymour & Noya Miller

e. Further Research

 Classification

 Signifying Practices

 Materiality
 Sources & Credits
Barthes, B. (1971), “From work to text” in Modern Literary Theory, Ed. Philip Rice and P.
Waugh. London, E Arnold.
Bauman, Z. (2005), Modernidad Líquida, Bs. As. FCE.
Foucault, M.(1979), “What Is an Author?”, en Textual Strategies: Perspectives in Post-
Structuralist Criticism, J.V. Harari(comp.), Ithaca, Nueva York, Cornell University Press,
pp. 141-160.
Genette, G.(1989): Palimpsestos. La literatura en segundo grado, Madrid, Taurus.
Hurst, M. (2007) Bit Literacy (Kindle Edition)
Landow, G. (2006), Hypertext 3.0. Critical Theory and new media in an era of globalization,
Baltimore, Johns Hopkins University Press.
Lyotard, F. (1984) The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press.
Negroponte, N. (1995) Being Digital.
Piscitelli, A. (2001) El Paréntesis de Gutenberg. La religión digital en la era de las pantallas
ubicuas. Bs As. Santillana.
Rodríguez Ruiz J. A. (2003) El Relato Digital. La escrilectura.
http://www.javeriana.edu.co/relato_digital
Schreibman, S. & Siemens, R. (2008) A Companion to Digital Literary Studies, Oxford:
Blackwell.

www. urbagram.net ; www. theatlantic.com : www. futureofthebook.org

www.flora.dempstercountry.org ; www. lordalford.com ; www.ublawcso.wordpress.com
www. rustyparts.com ; www. outandemployed.wordpress.com
www. afamousartist.com