Panel Statement
Panel: Zones of Contact and Fields of Consistency in Electronic Literature
This paper will discuss the relationship between speed and literary criticism in the age of new media. Specifically, this paper will explore the dual metaphor of the “tag” as an official consumer label and an underground art form, and the productive tension that exists when both forms exist within the same urban space. Using this metaphor to discuss traditional terminologies and folksonomy as forms of “tagging” that can create productive tension within database projects like the Electronic Literature Directory, I will conclude with a call for attentiveness that can push both casual readers and conservative scholars towards criticism that is technologically appropriate, ethically engaged, and culturally vital.
- Davin Heckman is the author of A Small World: Smart Houses and the Dream of the Perfect Day (Duke UP, 2008). He is Supervising Editor of the Electronic Literature Directory and Associate Professor of English at Siena Heights University, where he teaches courses in writing, literature, and media studies. In 2011, he was selected as a Fulbright Scholar in digital culture at the University of Bergen, N. directory.eliterature.org
Full text (PDF) p. 1162-1166