Thursday, November 22, 2007

My Thesis at the Moment

"Cultures of Reception in Digital Literature: Implied Response In(ter) Action"

Keywords: Digital Textuality, Response Theory, Digital Literature, Reception Theory, Remix, Spatiality Theory, Digital Cultures.

My thesis works from a corpus of six digital texts; a three dimensional interactive drama, three Flash websites, a blog and a CD-ROM novel. By looking for networks of implied response in the prefaces (copyright, storage, distribution, and instructions), design, and narratives from the corpus texts I propose a hybrid model of interaction. What is implied as interaction in often the ideal image of the digital literary text. I argue that such a concept of interaction is best described as Remix. However, by examining implied response in the prefaces and materials of the corpus digital texts, it becomes clear that what is often termed interaction is an authored system of guided responses. The overall network of implied response is comprised of particular cultural values. I adopt a series of values; property, appropriation, time, space, use, exchange, communication and domination (Lefebvre, 1991: 356, 370) and using Bakhtin's concept of dialogism (Bakhtin, 1981, 2002) I look at how the corpus digital texts embody their own responses. In reading multimedia texts for networks of implied response I build an image of interaction. Such an image, when tested against a defined concept of remix, provides a model for digital text reception, authorship and comments on the idea of digital literacy.

ETA: (Northern) Spring Term 2009.

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