Literary Thresholds: Exploring the Edges of Ambient Literature

Authors

  • Amy Spencer UWE Bristol

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14195/2182-8830_6-1_10

Keywords:

ambient literature, electronic literature, Gerard Gennette, paratext, digital writing

Abstract

This paper examines the use of thresholds as a feature of ambient literature to explore this emerging literary form and its literary roots. The Ambient Literature project is a two year AHRC funded research programme coordinated by three universities in the UK (UWE Bristol, Bath Spa and Birmingham) to investigate the potential of situated literary experiences delivered by pervasive computing platforms, which respond to the presence of a reader to deliver story. The project has commissioned three works of ambient literature from established writers to understand the form, the experiences of its readers and the process of its authoring. This paper will address the positions of form, reader and author and argue that the emergence of ambient literature can extend the understanding of literature and textuality while drawing on the heritage of electronic literature.

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References

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GENETTE, Gérard (1997). Paratexts: Thresholds of Interpretation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997.

MCCULLOUGH, Malcolm (2015). “Distraction Reconsidered: On the Cultural Stakes of the Ambient.” Ubiquitous Computing, Complexity and Culture. Eds. Ulrick Ekman, Jay David Bolter, Lily Díaz, Morten Søndergaard, and Maria Engberg. London: Routledge.

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SPEAKMAN. Duncan (2017). It Must Have Been Dark by Then. 10 June 2018. https://ambientlit.com/index.php/it-must-have-been-dark-by-then/

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Published

2018-08-10

How to Cite

Spencer, Amy. 2018. “Literary Thresholds: Exploring the Edges of Ambient Literature”. MATLIT: Materialities of Literature 6 (1):149-58. https://doi.org/10.14195/2182-8830_6-1_10.

Issue

Vol. 6 No. 1 (2018): Electronic Literature: Affiliations

Section

Secção Temática | Thematic Section

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