Digital Literature

This thesis examines the origins and cultural context of cell phone novels, first in Japan then spreading to other countries, and considers the literary value of emerging forms of digital fiction. It includes reviews of a sampling of novels written and read on networked digital devices and through social media and explores trends in the academic and publishing communities that point to the relevance of this phenomenon to young writers as well as adult writers for children and young adults.

This article approaches the second major change of medium that literature went through, from print to digital, and it explores how this change influenced the reading and understanding of narratives. The appearance of the digital created the need for the definition of new terminological webs and facilitated the emergence of a corpus of literary works. This study provides a comparative description of the digital as a medium for literature and a classification of concepts used in the analysis of digital narrative literature, as well as the working paths for the preservation of digital texts and their inclusion under the proposed umbrella term of “network literature.”

This essay studies what happens to the poetics of a text that was first written on or for a certain internet platform when it is later copy-pasted to a different literary medium-that of an edited and printed book. The main target of the discussion is Finnish author Karri Kokko's conceptual literary work Retweeted (2016), a print-on-demand book, the roots of which are firmly in both the traditions of print media and the digital interfaces of the social media platform Twitter. The analysis pays close attention to the medial qualities of both Twitter and the conceptual novel that draws material from it. The essay aims to highlight the poetic qualities of the material produced and circulated on Twitter, the affectivity of the platform itself, and the effects the transposition into the codex format has on these phenomena. The essay argues that when investigating the poetics of internet-based collages, and social media platforms more generally, one must be mindful of 1) the logics of writing and revenue on internet platforms, and 2) the paratextuality of both the original online platforms and the book at hand.

Cette étude examine ce qui se passe avec les règles d'un texte d'abord écrit pour une plateforme numérique, puis mécaniquement transférée à un autre support littéraire, celui d'un livre publié sous forme papier. Au coeur de l'analyse se trouve une oeuvre conceptuelle de l'auteur finlandais Karri Kokko, Retweeted (2016), un texte numérique imprimable sur demande, qui plonge à la fois dans les traditions du livre imprimé comme celles de la plateforme numérique Twitter. L'analyse s'attache aux propriétés médiatiques de Twitter comme du roman conceptuel qui s'approprie Twitter. Elle se propose de mettre en lumière les qualitiés poétiques des matériaux produits et diffusés par Twitter, la dimension affective de la plateforme elle-même ainsi que les conséquences de la transposition au support livre. L'article démontre qu'en examinant la poétique des collages numériques et des médias sociaux on général, on doit toujours avoir à l'esprit : 1) la logique de l'écriture et du profit propre aux plateformes numériques, et 2) le paratexte des plateformes aussi bien que des livres.

Un estudio sobre la poesía actual en formato digital con colaboraciones de investigadores de múltiples universidades españolas e internacionales con el objetivo de cubrir el análisis de estas formas literarias, su breve pero intensa historia, la perspectiva de género, el salto mediático y también sus posibilidades docentes. Cuenta, asimismo, con la participación de jóvenes creadores que han usado la red para crear y difundir su obra.

La democratización de las herramientas de edición, publicación y distribución de contenidos informativos en Internet ha completado el mapa de la comunicación con nuevos actores, que aprovechan el entorno para generar contenidos cada vez más específicos, bien por la temática, bien por su radio de acción, o ambos, que deben competir con los gigantes de la información. Nuevas técnicas y herramientas permiten a proyectos que nacen de lo local, y a veces de lo estrictamente personal, abrir oportunidades a otro tipo de comunicación. ¿Cómo se consigue tener relevancia informativa desde el formato blog? ¿Qué recursos están disponibles? ¿Y en qué modelos podemos fijarnos para tener éxito?

En este trabajo se analizará cómo las nuevas formas creativas que surgen de la revolución digital
y tecnológica aparecen como constructos híbridos que combinan y experimentan con recursos
locales y globales, convirtiéndose en obras delicadas de clasificar según campos, géneros o incluso
lenguajes y lenguas. Que la literatura digital funciona como un constructo híbrido es un hecho que no
se puede negar, no sólo porque sea producto de la combinación de elementos de distinta naturaleza
sino, y más importante, porque sus códigos obedecen a diferentes funcionamientos culturales. Por
ello se analizarán estas producciones artístico-literarias en las que lo digital ejerce como soporte a
la vez que como medio

Six years before the Egyptian revolution of January 2011, many young Egyptians had resorted to blogging as a means of self-expression and literary creativity. This resulted in the emergence of a new literary genre: the autofictional blog. Such blogs are explored here as forms of digital literature, combining literary analysis and interviews with the authors.
The blogs analysed give readers a glimpse into the daily lives, feelings and aspirations of the Egyptian youth who have pushed the country towards a cultural and political revolution. The narratives are also indicative of significant aesthetic and political developments taking place in Arabic literature and culture.

　

OkadaBooks is an Android application and online platform for publishing and reading books electronically. It was founded by author and engineer
Okechukwu Ofili and won mobile service provider MTN Nigeria’s App of the Year Award (2013) in the category ‘Best Overall App’ (Osuagwu). At the time of writing, OkadaBooks offer their users more than 200 000 titles which have been downloaded more than one million times. OkadaBooks content ranges from novels and poetry to contemporary African comics, self-help literature and children’s literature. The newer material is to a large extent written by non-established writers who use the app as a way to reach readers rather than to earn money by letting the reader access their texts for free. Other writers’ books can be purchased through the app using a variety of payment methods.
This interview with Magnus Okeke was done via email in September 2018, five years after the launch of OkadaBooks. Okeke became OkadaBooks’s first employee at the end of 2014. He leads what he calls a ‘proactive customer support team’ who assist customers via phone, email, Playstore and other channels. Okeke has studied computer science at Yaba College of Technology in Lagos, Nigeria, and is currently studying to become a product manager.