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Immersion versus Interactivity: Virtual Reality and Literary Theory
Virtual Reality has been defined as an "interactive, immersive experience generated by computer " (Pimentel and Texeira).This paper investigates the possibility of the literary implementation of these two dimensions. While immersion plays an important role in theories of fiction based on the concept of possible world and of game of make-believe, it presupposes a transparency of the medium that goes against the grain of postmodern aesthetics. Postmodern literature emulates the interactive aspect of VR in a metaphorical way through self-reflexivity, and in a more literal way through hypertext, but both of these attempts involve the sacrifice of the pleasure derived from immersion. In computer-generated VR, by contrast, immersion and interactivity do not stand in conflict but support each other. The difference in behavior between VR and literature is seen to reside in the participation of the body. While textual worlds are created through a purely mental semiotic activity which presupposes an external point of view, the worlds of VR are created from within through an activity both mental and physical.
Scott Rettberg - 19.05.2011 - 17:09
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Hyper/Text/Theory
In his widely acclaimed book Hypertext George P. Landow described a radically new information technology and its relationship to the work of such literary theorists as Jacques Derrida and Roland Barthes. Now Landow has brought together a distinguished group of authorities to explore more fully the implications of hypertextual reading for contemporary literary theory.
Among the contributors, Charles Ess uses the work of Jürgen Habermas and the Frankfurt School to examine hypertext's potential for true democratization. Stuart Moulthrop turns to Deleuze and Guattari as a point of departure for a study of the relation of hypertext and political power. Espen Aarseth places hypertext within a framework created by other forms of electronic textuality. David Kolb explores what hypertext implies for philosophy and philosophical discourse. Jane Yellowlees Douglas, Gunnar Liestol, and Mireille Rosello use contemporary theory to come to terms with hypertext narrative. Terrence Harpold investigates the hypertextual fiction of Michael Joyce. Drawing on Derrida, Lacan, and Wittgenstein, Gregory Ulmer offers an example of the new form of writing hypertextuality demands.
Eric Dean Rasmussen - 12.09.2011 - 08:36
