START HERE> An Interdisciplinary Introduction to Electronic Literature (original) (raw)

2002, Iowa Journal of Cultural Studies

The hypertext solution. .. retains and puts back together the great traditions of literature and scholarship, traditions based on the fact that dividing things up arbitrarily just generally doesn't work.-Ted Nelson, Computer Lib/Dream Machines (1974) Before reading what follows, I suggest that you turn on your networked computer and prepare to visit some territories that have not yet been clearly demarcated. START HERE> is more cultural snapshot than cultural study, more a map of places to explore than an explanation of what you'll find there. This is an article intended M ichelle Citron is a Professor in the Department o f Radio/Television/Film at Northwestern University, Associate Dean o f The Graduate School, and Director of the Center for Interdiscipli nary Research in the Arts. Kurt Heintz is a writer, performer, and new media artist, who founded the e-poets network and whose work has appeared in the anthology Rude Trip: The Hamburg-Chicago Literary Expedition (Edition 406, 2001). Niki Nolin works and teaches in the Aca demic Computing Department of Columbia College, Chicago. Scott Rettberg is Assistant Pro fessor of New Media Studies in the Literature program at Richard Stockton College, as well as co founder of the Electronic Literature Organization and co-author o f The Unknown: A Hypertext Novel (1998-2001) and The Unknown: An Anthology (The Unknown Press, 2002). Andrew Stem is a designer and programmer for PF.Magic in San Francisco. Joseph Tabbi is the author of Cognitive Fictions (Minnesota, 2002) and co-editor of Reading Matters: Narrative in the New Media Ecology (Cornell, 1997), as well as co-founder of the electronic book review and Associ ate Professor o f English at the University of Illinois, Chicago. Rob Wittig is co-founder of the literary electronic bulletin board system IN.S.O M N IA and author of Invisible Rendezvous: Connection and Collaboration in the New Landscape of Electronic Writing (Wesleyan, 1994).