The concept of narrative has been widely invoked by theorists of digital textuality, but the promotion of what is described as the storytelling power of the computer has often relied on shallow metaphors, loose conceptions of narrative, and literary models that ignore the distinctive properties of the digital medium. Two myths have dominated this theorization. The myth of the Aleph (as I call it) presents the digital text as a finite text that contains an infinite number of stories. The myth of the Holodeck envisions digital narrative as a virtual environment in which the user becomes a character in a plot similar to those of Victorian novels or Shakespearean tragedies. Both of these myths rely on questionable assumptions: that any permutation of a collection of lexias results in a coherent story; that it is aesthetically desirable to be the hero of a story; and that digital narrativity should cover the same range of emotional experiences as literary narrative. Here I argue that digital narrative should emancipate itself from literary models. But I also view narrative as a universal structure that transcends media. This article addresses the question of reconciling the inherent linearity of narrative structures with the multiple paths made possible by the interactive nature of the digital text by distinguishing four forms of interactivity, which result from the cross-classification of two binaries: internal versus external interactivity; and exploratory versus ontological. Each of these categories is shown to favor different narrative themes and different variations of the universal narrative structure.

http://www.multimedia.uqam.ca/profs/lcp/dramat/V2/docs/23.4ryan.pdf

Beyond Myth and Metaphor: Narrative in Digital Media

Acknowledgements Introduction: the satiric frame of mind Part I. Satiric Boundaries: 1. Imagination's Cerebrus 2. Satiric nationalism 3. Satiric exile Part II. Satiric Forms: 4. Satire as performance 5. Horatian performances 6. Satire and the novel 7. Literature and the press: the Battle of Dunkirk 8. White snow and black magic: Karl Kraus and the press Conclusion Notes Bibliography Index.

The Literature of Satire

This study addresses the problem critics have faced in identifying contemporary perceptions of the barber, surgeon and barber-surgeon in early modernity by examining the literature, predominantly the drama, from the period. The name ‘barber-surgeon’ is not given formally to any character in extant early modern plays; only within the dialogue or during stage business is a character labelled the barber-surgeon. Barbers and surgeons are simultaneously separate and doubled-up characters. The differences and cross-pollinations between their practices play out across the literature and tell us not just about their cultural, civic and occupational histories but also about how we interpret patterns in language, onomastics, dramaturgy, materiality, acoustics and semiology. Accordingly, the argument in this study is structured thematically and focuses on the elements of performance, moving from discussions of names to discussions of settings and props, disguises, stage directions and semiotics, and from sound effects and music, to voices and rhetorical turns. In doing so, it questions what it means in early modernity to have a developed literary identity, or be deprived of one. The barber-surgeon is a trope in early modern literature because he has a tangible social impact and an historical meaning derived from his barbery and surgery roots, and consequently a richly allusive idiom which exerted attraction for audiences. But the figure of the barber-surgeon can also be a trope in investigating how representation works. An aesthetic of doubleness, which this study finds to be diversely constructed, prevails in barbers, surgeons’ and barber-surgeons’ literary conception, and the barber-surgeon in the popular imagination is created from opposing cultural stereotypes. The literature from the period demonstrates why a guild union of barbers and surgeons was never harmonious: they are opposing dramaturgical as well as medical figures. This study has a wide-ranging literary corpus, including early modern play texts, ballads, pamphlets, guild records, dictionaries, inventories, medical treatises and archaeological material, and contributes to the critical endeavours of the medical humanities, cultural materialists, theatre historians and linguists.

Performing barbers, surgeons and barber-surgeons in early modern English literature

Purpose – The purpose is to bring together all bibliographic references of the published literature on electronic books (e-books) and related technologies in one source so that it will save time for others in conducting literature searches and reviewing the developments. Design/methodology/approach – The information included in this bibliography is collected systematically from all the published sources in the world such as journal articles, conference papers, conference proceedings, books, reports and PhD theses on e-books until the last quarter of 2004. Mainly it covers e-books, e-books publishing, the impact of e-books on different types of users, e-book publishing techniques and trends, e-book user interfaces and other technologies related to e-publications. Findings – As computer usage continues to grow exponentially, the desire of users to use electronic publications (e-publications) has also increased tremendously. This has led to the publication of materials in electronic form as e-publications on both CD-ROMs and web. The e-book is one of the several forms of e-publications and its popularity has been growing steadily for the past decade. Originality/value – This bibliography will be useful to all researchers conducting research in any areas related to e-books and e-book publishing.

Judd D. Hubert

Papers

The Cutting Edge Of Reading: Artists' Books

Molière and the Comedy of Intellect

Metatheater: The Example of Shakespeare

L'esthétique des "Fleurs du mal" : essai sur l'ambiguïté poétique

Essai d'exégèse racinienne