A Topographical Approach to Re-Reading Books about Islands in Digital Literary Spaces

Authors

  • J. R. Carpenter unaffiliated scholar

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14195/2182-8830_4-1_5

Keywords:

islands, castaways, topography, reading, variable text, digital literature

Abstract

This article takes a topographical approach to re-reading print books in digital literary spaces through a discussion of a web-based work of digital literature, …and by islands I mean paragraphs (Carpenter 2013). In this work, a reader is cast adrift in a sea of white space extending far beyond the bounds of the browser window, to the north, south, east and west. This sea is dotted with computer-generated paragraphs. These fluid texts call upon variable strings containing words and phrases collected from a vast literary corpus of books about islands. Individually, each of these textual islands represents a topic—from the Greek topos, meaning place. Collectively they constitute a topographical map of a sustained practice of reading and re-reading and writing and re-writing on the topic of islands. This article argues that, called as statement-events into digital processes, fragments of print texts are reconstituted as events occurring in a digital present which is also a break from the present. A new regime of signification emerges, in which authorship is distributed and text is ‘eventilized’ (Hayles). This regime is situated at the interface between an incoherent aesthetics, one which tends to unravel neat masses, including well-known works of print literature; and an incoherent politics, one which tends to dissolve existing institutional bonds, including bonds of authorship and of place. Galloway terms this regime of signification the ‘dirty regime of truth’.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.14195/2182-8830_4-1_5

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Author Biography

J. R. Carpenter, unaffiliated scholar

J. R. Carpenter is a Canadian artist, writer, researcher, performer and maker of maps, zines, books, poetry, short fiction, long fiction, non-fiction, and non-linear, intertextual, hypermedia, and computer-generated narratives. She lives in South Devon, England. http://luckysoap.com

References

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CARPENTER, J. R. (2012). “The Sea and Spar Between by Nick Montfort and Stephanie Strickland.” Magazine MCD (Musiques & Cultures Digitales) 66.

CARPENTER, J. R. (2013a). “…and by islands I mean paragraphs.” luckysoap. http://luckysoap.com/andbyislands.

CARPENTER, J. R. (2013b). “…and by islands I mean paragraphs.” The Island Review 4 Oct. 15 Jan. 2016.

http://www.theislandreview.com/and-by-islands-i-mean-paragraphs/.

CARPENTER, J. R. (2014). “Eight Short Talks About Islands ...and by islands I mean paragraphs.” Journal of Writing in Creative Practice 7. 1: 27-32. doi: 10.1386/jwcp.7.1.27_1.

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http://ualresearchonline.arts.ac.uk/7825/.

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SAMPLE, Mark (2013b). “no life no life no life no life: the 100,000,000,000,000 stanzas of House of Leaves of Grass.” samplereality. 8 May 2013. http://www.samplereality.com/2013/05/08/no-life-no-life-no-life-no-life-the-100000000000000-stanzas-of-house-of-leaves-of-grass/.

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WARK, McKenzie (2011). The Beach Beneath the Street: The Everyday Life and Glorious Times of The Situationist International. London & NY: Verso.

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Published

2016-02-28

How to Cite

Carpenter, J. R. 2016. “A Topographical Approach to Re-Reading Books about Islands in Digital Literary Spaces”. MATLIT: Materialities of Literature 4 (1):81-94. https://doi.org/10.14195/2182-8830_4-1_5.

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Section

Secção Temática | Thematic Section