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We live in an age where language and screens continue to collide for creative purposes, giving rise to new forms of digital literatures and literary video games. Towards a Digital Poetics explores this relationship between word and computer, querying what it is that makes contemporary fictions like Dear Esther and All the Delicate Duplicates—both ludic and literary—different from their print-based predecessors.
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T O W A R D S A D I G I T A L P O E T I C S E L EC TR ONI C L I T E R AT U R E & L I T E R A RY G A M E S James O’Sullivan Towards a Digital Poetics James O’Sullivan Towards a Digital Poetics Electronic Literature & Literary Games James O’Sullivan University College Cork Cork, Ireland ISBN 978-3-030-11309-4 ISBN 978-3-030-11310-0 (eBook) https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-11310-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2018967280 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2019 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover illustration: Panther Media GmbH/Alamy Stock Photo This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Electronic literature tests the boundaries of the literary and challenges us to re-think our assumptions of what literature can do and be. —N. Katherine Hayles For my sisters, Aoife & Aimée Acknowledgements As with any such project, there are lots of people to thank, most of whom one forgets until it is too late. Primarily, I would like to acknowledge the professionalism and patience of my editors at Palgrave, Ben Doyle and Camille Davies. Gratitude is also owed, in various degrees for various contributions, to Mary Galvin, Graham Allen, Órla Murphy, Dene Grigar, John Barber, Davin Heckman, Anthony Durity and a great many members of the e-lit community. A few minor sections of this book appeared as earlier drafts in Paradoxa 29 and Literary Studies in a Digital Age and have been reused here with the generous permission of the editors. ix Contents 1 Digital Culture and the New Modernity 1 2 Electronic Literature 23 3 Authorship and Reading in the Digital Age 61 4 Interactivity and the Illusion of Choice 77 5 Digital Materiality and the Politics of the Screen 95 6 Towards a Digital Poetics 115 References 129 Index 139 xi List of Figures Fig. 2.1 Fig. 2.2 Fig. 2.3 Fig. 2.4 afternoon, a story (Joyce 1990) Vniverse (Strickland and Lawson 2002) All the Delicate Duplicates (Bree