Part One: Pasts, Presents, Futures
Multiform Literature
Janet Murray sees the networked computer as a gathering place. Another theorist, Brenda Laurel, sees computers as theatre. Marshall McLuhan sees the technological world as a global village. Jay David Bolter sees the computer as a hiding place that shields us from the information overload of contemporary culture. Mirroring our engagement with society, Murray argues that what she calls 'multiform stories' allow us to hold multiple, contradictory narrative alternatives in our mind simultaneously.
Students will read "The Garden of Forking Paths" as an introduction to a classic example of this kind of storytelling, and then explore two electronic examples of multiform stories that deal with issues of embodiment. These digital works all problematize issues surrounding virtuality and subjectivity through varied approaches to speaking the body. An exploration of the effects of the narrative contradictions and the privileging of sensation in such environments will be undertaken with an eye toward how this does or does not reflect a changing world.