Comments on: Electronic Literature as World Literature?

By: Davin Heckman

Davin Heckman — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 20:03:09 +0000

Jason,

This would be a great idea for an exhibition… but part of the problem is reaching out to artists in the first place. I only know Horit because she replied to a CFP I sent out a long time ago.

I’d love to see if we get anymore action here. Maybe people would respond to this thread by plugging artists that they might be flying under the radar.

Or, maybe we should start by looking at the “E-Lit Portals” tab, and then ask people to list their favorite electronic writers that HAVEN’T been mentioned in those portals (and we can add some others to the list). Like, who hasn’t been mentioned at E-Poetry, anthologized in the ELO collection, referenced on Hermeneia, etc. We could set some parameters, and then invite people to submit some recommendations… because it’s not just a geographical thing… it also has to do with trying to broaden our vision.

It would be a tragedy, I think, if Electronic Literature were synonymous with a “movement,” rather than a development in the history of Literature as a whole. Nobody thinks of “the novel” as a movement, even if it began that way… rather, the novel became synonymous with Literature, even if we all know that there is Literature that has other formal characteristics.

But, yeah, I would like to work with some people to put together an exhibition that tried to accomplish this goal of exploring electronic literature as world literature. Right now, I know that I do not have the breadth to be able to put something like this together myself. Most of what I read comes from recommendations. It was only my good luck that Horit contacted me.

By: heliopod

heliopod — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:28:06 +0000

A really elegant and thoughtful post Davin. The theme of “Future Fate of E-Lit” seems to be a major theme in not only many of the posts here, but also much of the scholarly and critical writings. And yet I think was has been lost is exactly what you are pointing towards, that this new form of literature is emerging around us, and away from us, and indeed is doing what good literature sometimes does, which is rethinking and translating world views and social ideas.

How about this for a task. Davin…how about for the first netPoetic Exhibition, you invite some of these folks, like the above to send in their work…indeed you could curate a section devoted to this type of literary and creative production.

Hows that sound?

Jason

By: vispo

vispo — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 01:53:37 +0000

you quote sandy baldwin saying “To what degree is what we talk about as electronic literature solely out of US/Western Europe? To what degree is it a function of the academic practices of these geographic regions?”

the answer is the degree to which “we” are not only from “US/Western Europe” but are not familiar with work from anywhere else.

you know who you are.

By: Christine Wilks

Christine Wilks — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 19:40:43 +0000

Thanks for this, particularly for drawing my attention to the work of Horit Herman Peled. It’s envigorating to read words such as these, ‘The artists are no longer only criticizing, mediating or commenting on the mode of production through aesthetization, from an outside and alienated position; they are working with the means of social production from within.’ And she goes on to say, ‘…a meaningful art work on the plane of the digital revolution is a work that points towards the possible fulfillment of the emancipatory potential inherent in this revolution.’ (http://web.macam.ac.il/~horit_a/blessed5.htm)

There’s something about the technical simplicity of her creative works that speaks more eloquently about the brutality of the barriers/borders than the surfeit of novelty and slickness that can so seduce we creators/users/readers/consumers.