Evaluating a poem. Questions?
Gallery of Modernist and Postmodern poems
Introducing E-Poetry / Born Digital Literature
Born Digital, Stephanie Strickland. Poetry Foundation, Feb 2009. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/articles/69224/born-digital
Concept
E-poetry or born-digital literature seems to aspire to some of the qualities commonly associated with good literature; but it may also recall some of the “modernist” tendencies that Eagleton highlights and others like Duchamp and Cage prize (innovation, novelty, challenge). According to Strickland, e-poetry aspires to do some things differently, perhaps more like performances, visual art or even games. What “traditional” literary criteria can be applied to E-lit AND what new or altered criteria might be called for?
Born Digital, Stephanie Strickland.
See: Nanette Wylde Storyland. Screencast; original Flash page via ELC. Wylde's documentation Plain version Version 1.0 (Must use Ruffle as as a “flash” emulator). Story generation code. Criticism and overviews via ELMCIP, E lit directory, and I love E-poetry
Groups: discuss the piece you read with at least two classmates. Decide which of Strickland's elements of e-poetry most resonates with the example. How does it help you think about the text? What questions does it raise?
Homework for Thursday will be to choose an E-lit work
Walkthrough and discussion: Which of Strickland's elements of e-poetry most resonates with the example. How does it help you think about the text? What questions does it raise?
What is the Electronic Literature Collection? Why do critics and academics produce anthologies? How does this relate to value and evaluation? Is it significant that the ELC4 invited submissions AND charged a team with identifying varied E-lit candidates not submitted by the works' makers? What do you infer from their genre categories (cf Dodd, Cage, Duchamp)? What do you make of their definitions of E-lit? Do they offer (implicit or explicit) criteria for their choices?
Tip: Note that all ELC works include both a brief “author” statement and an editorial statement on the work page.
Pair Discussion, genres, questions about E-lit and ELC4
Choosing works, preparing to “compete” (informing and persuading)
After choosing and discussing a work with your team. You'll use the process of writing several specific paragraphs about the work and then the preparation of three, succinct slides – to focus our thinking and prepare to advocate for your piece in the contest next week.
I have done this tournament twice before, with some modifications. To give you an idea of how we will put it together, have a look at the 2021 Contest. (Some of the writing and slides are great, some are OK. Use your judgement in selecting models! Paragraphs,Slides, and bracket.
Working in pairs, discuss, explore and begin developing the case for your work. Review each proposer's original write-up, explore the work further, and reflect on how it intersects with our discussions / readings on value.
Tournament Teams - Group Writing Space
Slide Space (3 slides per team)
Work with your classmate to fully draft 3 effective paragraphs about your chosen work and share it in the Tournament Teams - Group Writing Space. You may edit synchronously in the shared doc; meet outside class; edit while talking via Zoom etc. See the model above from 2021.
If you miss class on Friday, you should email me so that I can pair you with a classmate.