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Digital technologies have influenced literary reading and writing at every level, including how we author, publish, distribute, read and study texts. This course equips students with skills for reading and writing in the digital age via a wide-ranging exploration of new media literatures, literature in relation to software cultures, changes to reading practices and cognition, and recent digital research tools and methods. The course will introduce students to new software and some technical concepts, but no special skills or knowledge are required.
The course will ask: What is electronic literature, and how does it relate to prior literary forms and genres? How do the technologies driving digital culture create new kinds of reading, writing and research practices? In what ways do the cognitive, cultural and political implications of digital media impact upon literary studies? We will read a range of texts and media, including hypertext fiction, interactive fiction, text games, and hybrid media texts. In 2017, these are likely to include:• E.M. Forster, “The Machine Stops”• Jorge Luis Borges, “The Library of Babel”• William Gibson, Neuromancer• Richard Powers, Galatea 2.2• Michael Joyce, afternoon, a story• Porpentine, Howling Dogs• Emily Short, Galatea• Tender Claws, Pry• Simon Christiansen, Alethicorp(Image: "Art.ficial 078 Achituv & Utterback - Text rain" by Marlus Watz, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.)
By the end of the course students will:Have become familiar with a range of works notable in digital cultureBe able to define electronic literature and explain its significance as a mode of cultural productionUnderstand the key historical and cultural contexts that inform works of electronic literature as well as print literature responding to digital technologiesUnderstand how text is encoded, transmitted and displayed in digital media.
This course will provide students with an opportunity to develop the Graduate Attributes specified below:
Critically competent in a core academic discipline of their award
Students know and can critically evaluate and, where applicable, apply this knowledge to topics/issues within their majoring subject.
15 points of ENGL at 200 level with a B pass, or30 points of ENGL at 200 level, orany 45 points at 200 level from the Arts schedule.
ENGL345
Christopher Thomson
Library portal
Domestic fee $1,493.00
International fee $6,075.00
* All fees are inclusive of NZ GST or any equivalent overseas tax, and do not include any programme level discount or additional course-related expenses.
For further information see Humanities .