Internet Radio and Electronic Literature: Locating the Text in the Act of Listening

This essay suggests sound(s), especially when designed/utilized to provide immersive contexts, can provide a valid literary experience and may be considered, like reading and writing, a central element in the digital narratives of electronic literature. Specifically, 1) Sound (vocal and other) provides the basis for narrative, the heart of every literary experience; 2) Rather than sound(s) in electronic literature, sound(s) might be heard as electronic literature; sound(s) might form the basis for new works of electronic literature; 3) Evolving considerations of Internet radio, especially with regard to mobile, interactive, social audio networks, with content drawn from radio drama and radio art, may provide models for these new forms of electronic literature that are deep, rich, engaging, and immersive literary experiences that locate the text not (solely?) in the acts of reading and writing, but also in the act of listening.

(Source: Author's abstract for ELO 2013: http://conference.eliterature.org/critical-writing/internet-radio-and-el... )