Digitale Literatur: Autorschaft, Entkörperlichung u. Subjektivität

Course Description

This course will introduce some of the issues surrounding the interaction of digital technology with cultural production. Specifically, we will explore various models of subjectivity as these find expression in emergent notions of the author and the reader. How might the author/reader interaction change in the digital environment? We will also investigate the nature of hypertext and its development from within critical theoretical discourse, and experience for ourselves some new modes of interaction in these online environments. Students will have the opportunity, as well, to create basic hypertexts and to collaborate in exciting new ways.

The course will range widely from materials marking the transition from print to bits (print texts that anticipate hypertextual structures, and digital texts that mimic print's constraints) to digital hypertext fiction, online scholarly research projects, and research and teaching oriented projects produced by faculty here on campus. We will also be reading theoretical texts that provide a foundation for discussing issues of subjectivity, identity, physicality, authorship/ ownership, and multi-linear and multi-layered narrative forms.

Readings and Source Materials

I. Books, Online Projects

• Sabrina Ortmann and Enno E. Peter. tage-bau.de. Ein literarisches Onlinetagebuch. Mein Pixel- Ich. 2001.
• Rainald Goetz. Heute Morgen. Roman-Serie mit 5 Facetten. 1999-2001.
• Gutenberg Digital. <http://www.gutenbergdigital.de/>
• Collection of Online Cybertextual Experiments at dichtung-digital and berliner zimmer (see below for URLs).
• Siegfried Lenz, Mutmassungen über die Zukunft der Literatur. Drei Essays.

II. Websites

• berliner zimmer. der salon im netz <http://www.berlinerzimmer.de>
• Softmoderne Online Magazin <http://www.softmoderne.de/>
• dichtung-digital <http://www.dichtung-digital.de/>
• Resource Center for Cyberculture Studies <http://www.com.washington.edu/rccs/>

III. Theoretical Background

Vannevar Bush. "As We May Think," 1945.
Sabrina Ortmann. Netz Literatur Projekt. Entwicklung einer neuen Literaturform von 1960 bis heute. 2001.
Heinz Ludwig Arnold, hrsg. Digitale Literatur. Heft 152: Edition Text + Kritik, 2001.
Friedrich Kittler. "The City is a Medium," 1996.
Martin Heidegger. "The Age of the World Picture," "The Origin of the Work of Art," 1934/345.
Roland Barthes. S/Z. 1974.
Jean Baudrillard. Simulacra and Simulation.1994.
Walter Benjamin. "The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction."
George Landow. Hypertext 2.0. 1997.