- Literature in Cyberspace
by Piret Viires
Contemporary society has become an information society and hence it makes
sense to interpret various changes in the cultural sphere. Connections between
computer technology and literature are one aspect of the complicated
global set of problems in tackling the adaptation of texts with the
media. The article focuses on what happens with literary texts in cyberspace,
how they adapt to that environment, and it examines the forms of
“cyberliterature”. The most comprehensive definition of cyberliterature
derives from the concept of digital literature, i.e. literature created on the
computer and presented by means of the computer. Trying to narrow the
concept of cyberliterature, it can be characterised by certain computer-specific
qualities: multi-linearity, different parts of hypertexts connected by
links, uniting the written text with multimedia, interactivity etc. The second
part of the article analyses a specific sub-category, one of the most
intriguing border areas of cyberliterature – fanfiction. Fanfiction signifies
texts mainly created as ‘pseudo-sequels’ to a book, comic strip, TV-series or
film, and that are not written by professional authors but by fans. A separate
section of fanfiction consists of texts written by aficionados of a pop or
rock group – this is the case of “real person fiction”.
Cyberliterature is part of a larger set of problems, the most general background
of which is the increasing role of technology in our society. Other
factors include the myriad opportunities that characterise the postmodernist
cultural situation, the expansion of the concept of literature and the emergence
of new forms of literature.
- The Problem of Meaning in Literature
by John Lye
"Meaning" is a difficult issue, and what I have to say here only scratches the surface of a complex and contested area. How do we know what a work of literature is 'supposed'; to mean, or what its 'real' meaning is? There are several ways to approach this:
- that meaning is what is intended by the author ;
- that meaning is created by and contained in the text itself ;
- that meaning is created by the reader.
- Genre
by Frank Episale
A cursory exploration of, and introduction to, the concept of "genre", its evolving meaning in the marketplace and its relationship to identity politics and the nature of language.
- An Introduction to Genre Theory
by Daniel Chandler
A number of perennial doubts plague genre theory. Are genres really 'out there' in the world, or are they merely the constructions of analysts? Is there a finite taxonomy of genres or are they in principle infinite? Are genres timeless Platonic essences or ephemeral, time-bound entities? Are genres culture-bound or transcultural?... Should genre analysis be descriptive or proscriptive? (Stam 2000, 14)
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Generic Conventions and Genre Evolution
by Stephen Rowley
How useful is Altman's discussion of the intra- and inter-generic processes of genre? How, for example, does the merging of various generic conventions in films such as Total Recall or Robocop alter the western "formula"?
- Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit -
Conventions and Genre
by Kerry Braye
Literature is a body of written (or oral) works, such as novels, poems and so on, that use words to stimulate the imagination and confront the reader with a unique vision of life. It is a creative, universal form of expression that addresses the emotional, spiritual, and/or intellectual concerns of humanity. The novel, for example, makes the reader see connections among various phenomenons and look at something in a way never thought about before. On the other hand, the novel may take the reader into the mind of the writer and make him/her feel they actually know the author. The characters, events, and ideas in the novel become part of their experience. The following will discuss these contrasting views of literature, paying particular attention to 'genre' theory and 'author expressivity', of which examples will be drawn from Jeanette Winterson's first novel, 'Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit'. It should be noted that reference is made to the main character in this essay as "Jess" (as in the film version) although the same character is referred to as "Jeanette" in the novel.
- The History of Tragedy
Peter Tatiner
A form of drama, central to Western literature, in which a person of superior intelligence and character, a leader of the community, is overcome by the very obstacles he is struggling to remove. Tragedy (like the epic) depicts serious incidents in which protagonists undergo a change from happiness to suffering, often involving the death of others as well as the main characters, and resulting from both the protagonists' actions and the inescapable limits of the human condition.
- Introduction to Greek Tragedy
Roger Dunkle
Tragedy was a public genre from its earliest beginnings at Athens; that is, it was intended to be presented in a theater before an audience. Epic originally was also a public genre. Homer chanted the Iliad and Odyssey to the accompaniment of a stringed instrument called a kithara before an audience. Epic continued to be recited by rhapsodes at festivals like the Panathenaia, but it gradually became more of a private genre to be read from a manuscript at one's leisure. This happened in part also to tragedy. In the fourth century Aristotle in his Poetics points out that it is possible to experience the effect of tragedy without public performance (i.e., by private reading).
- The Tragedy of Existence: Shakespeare's "Troilus and Cressida"
by Joyce Carol Oates
Troilus and Cressida, that most vexing and ambiguous of Shakespeare's plays, strikes the modern reader as a contemporary document—its investigation of numerous infidelities, its criticism of tragic pretensions, above all, its implicit debate between what is essential in human life and what is only existential are themes of the twentieth century.
- The Tragedy of Imagination: Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra"
by Joyce Carol Oates
Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra shares with Troilus and Cressida the obsessive and self-consuming rage of the tragic figure as he confronts and attempts to define "reality." But, more extravagantly than Troilus and Cressida, this reality is layered with masquerade; forms that are often as lyric as brutal shift and change and baffle expectation.
- Suicide on Stage
Shakespeare's Life and Times
Most of the suicides which appear in Shakespeare's plays don't conform to a single moral viewpoint or tradition. A tragic hero who unwaveringly follows the code of "death before dishonor" would show little of the inner conflict and self-doubt which make for compelling tragedy. Shakespeare's plays demonstrate the versatility of suicide as a dramatic device. Since suicide was such a controversial -- and sometimes paradoxical -- a particular character's suicide could provoke a wide range of emotions: from horror and condemnation to pity and even respect.
- Is Hedda Gabler a Tragedy?
Lilia Melani
Lou Salome believes Hedda Gabler's death is tragic and that Hedda Gabler is a tragedy. Carolyn W. Mayerson doesn't. What do you think of their interpretations? Do you think this play is a tragedy?
- The Tragic Vision
Lilia Melani
In tragedy, life goes on; in comedy, life goes onward and upward. In the tragic vision, the possibility of a happy ending is unrealized, although it is sometimes suggested, as when Lear is briefly reconciled to Cordelia. When tragedy pauses to look at comedy, it views such a happy ending as an aborted or by-passed possibility. At best, it acknowledges "what might have been" as an ironic way of magnifying "tragic waste." Tragedy tends to exclude comedy. In the tragic vision, something or someone dies or lapses into a winter of discontent.
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