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Research Group Electronic Literature
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Two New Books about Electronic Literature

Scott Rettberg and Joe Tabbi discuss their new books on electronic literature in conversation with Eric Rasmussen.

Covers of two books about electronic literature by Rettberg and Tabbi
Photo:
Polity Press, Bloomsbury Press

Main content

Two new books: The Bloomsbury Handbook of Electronic Literature (Bloomsbury, 2018) edited by Joseph Tabbi, and Electronic Literature by Scott Rettberg (forthcoming on Polity, 2018) that promise to redefine the research scholarship and pedagogy of electronic literature will be presented and discussed in a debate moderated by Eric Rasmussen.

The digital age has had a profound impact on literary culture, with new technologies opening up opportunities for new forms of literary art from hyperfiction to multi-media poetry and narrative-driven games. Bringing together leading scholars and artists from across the world, The Bloomsbury Handbook of ElectronicLiterature is the first authoritative reference handbook to the field.

Crossing disciplinary boundaries, this book explores the foundational theories of the field, contemporary artistic practices, debates and controversies surrounding such key concepts as canonicity, world systems, narrative and the digital humanities, and historical developments and new media contexts of contemporary electronic literature. Including guides to major publications in the field, The Bloomsbury Handbook of Electronic Literature is an essential resource for scholars of contemporary culture in the digital era.

Electronic Literature considers new forms and genres of writing that exploit the capabilities of computers and networks literature that would not be possible without the contemporary digital context.

In this book, Rettberg places the most significant genres of electronic literature in historical, technological, and cultural contexts. These include hypertext fiction, combinatory poetics, interactive fiction (and other game-based digital literary work), kinetic and interactive poetry, and networked writing based on our collective experience of the Internet. He argues that electronic literature demands to be read both through the lens of experimental literary practices dating back to the early twentieth century and through the specificities of the technology and software used to produce the work.

Considering electronic literature as a subject in totality, this book provides a vital introduction to a dynamic field that both reacts to avant-garde literary and art traditions and generates new forms of narrative and poetic work particular to the twenty-first century.