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N.B.: This module is currently under development,
but comments, suggestions, and questions are warmly welcomed. Please
email me.
Although courses focusing
on literary texts by women have been a standard offering for the
past twenty years, many are unaware of the substantial body of creative
work that women have been producing for the web. The work belies
the notion of a "gender divide" in the digital world:
it aggressively employs cutting-edge media technologies and insistently
explores concepts and themes that range widely over women's concerns
and experiences. Insiders in the world of electronic literature
have long recognized that women were among the earliest adopters
of online technologies for expressive, artistic, and literary purposes.
purpose
This module offers an introduction to women's literary texts written
for the web. (Note that it does not cover hypertexts written for
CD-ROM, although a selection of these may be found referenced in
the bibliography.) The module is not a "Cliffs Notes"
guide: you will not find detailed commentary on specific texts.
The intent, instead, is to provide context, perspective, and background
to help students read, think about, and enjoy these texts.
contexts
Three different contexts are offered: women
and digital culture, literary background,
and theoretical background. Each of these
contexts offers a point of access to the texts, so they can be used
independently of each other. Each context also presupposes a different
level of interest in and preparation for dealing with challenging
literary texts. The first context, women and digital culture, is
an introductory level that addresses the cultural association of
women and computers and the themes and threads that this association
engenders. Many of these themes form provocative instigators for
reading and discussing the texts, making this context appropriate
for lower level classes or classes without a specifically literary
focus.
The second context, literary background, places women’s
electronic literature within an historical context in relation to
the idea of a feminine aesthetic. Writers such as Gertrude Stein,
H.D., Kathy Acker, and Carole Maso demonstrate the kind of textual
experimentation that electronic authors further explore through
hypertext and multimedia. Much of this experimentation focuses on
the materiality of language and the body, introducing the question
of “writing the body,” a trope that is often associated
with women's writing. This context is appropriate for literature,
art, or other classes interested in aesthetics.
The third context, theoretical background, considers
women’s online writing in relation to such questions as écriture
feminine, hypertext and gender politics, and cyborgism. The
background reading for this context is fairly sophisticated, making
it appropriate for upper-level courses in literature, art, and culture.
Although each context provides a separate point of
entry for reading and discussing the texts, they may be used together
as a progressive sequence. Based on interest and available time,
feel free to follow the first with the second context, or the second
with the third, or use all three in sequence.
texts
The body of women's online literary texts is vast: visit Carolyn
Guertin's Assemblage:
The Women's New Media Gallery (a marvelous resource and the
primary source of the texts featured in this module) to get a sense
of just how prolific women have been in this area. This module presents
selections of texts grouped according to genre: fiction, poetry,
multimedia, memoir/diary/journal, nonfiction, and collaborative
work (with overlap among these groups). This breakdown is useful
for courses with a genre focus and invites discussion of the role
of genre in electronic media.
tools
Additional resources include related links, a bibliography, ideas
for projects and a gallery for sharing them, and a blog for sharing
your experiences with the module and for offering comments and suggestions.
Please do so! And above all, enjoy the texts.
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