On materiality: an analysis of the medium’s role in electronic literature

Abstract

How does materiality in electronic literature affect the literary experience and our relationship with literature? In an attempt to address this question, this dissertation explores the field of electronic literature through the work of theorists like N. Katherine Hayles, Nick Montfort, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Roberto Simanowski, and Jeremy Hight. It offers a close analysis of _][ad][Dressed in a Skin C.ode_ by Mez Breeze in the first chapter; Between Page and Screen by Amaranth Borsuk and Brad Bouse in the second chapter; and 34 North 118 West by Jeff Knowlton, Naomi Spellman, and Jeremy Hight in the third chapter. It shows that by investigating the materials through which e-lit is configured and experienced, the role and influence that materiality has on the literary experience and the relationship between readers/users and literature can be understood further. The first chapter will discuss the machine as medium through its software and hardware. Both components are made up of multiple layers which communicate with each other and with the human agent, all of which are vital parts of the computer’s materiality. Given technology’s ever-evolving state, however, one may question what happens when a work’s platform is no longer supported by the latest software and hardware and must attempt to be preserved. The second chapter will examine works that rely on collaboration between the machine and the human in order for the work to be experienced. It will analyse society’s relationship with traditional print literature, and compare how that relationship has changed as a result of E-Lit. This is exemplified through skeuomorphs, which act as an intermediary between print and digital literature, thus affecting our relationship with both mediums. The final chapter will move onto E-Lit which uses the human as a physical vehicle. This focus on the spatio-temporal place in which E-Lit exists through the body highlights both a greater emphasis on user engagement, as well as on the body as material through which the work would not function without. While there are limits to the human’s agency in these works as their bodies act as corporeal intermediaries between the digital work and the physical world, the user’s will to engage with and enjoy the work is ultimately quite important. E-Lit’s playful materiality therefore urges us to re-examine our relationship with literature, the ‘literary’, the printed book, and the technological medium, both individually and collectively, as it draws attention to how these relationships evolve in today’s digital society.