View source for Third Hand Plays: An Introduction to Electronic Literature

The first in a series of columns about electronic literature and digital literary art written by Brian Kim Stefans for the SFMOMA's Open Space blog.  Here, Stefans explains the premise behind his column: each installment describes what he dubs one of the "simples" of digital literature, that is, "some element in the deep structure of the text/alogrithm interaction" that the author deploys to produce aesthetic effects. In digital literature, Stefans proposes, these formal elements are akin to poetic features, such as assonance, alliteration, and rhyme, that can be identified as a poem's basic components. Critical terminology provides readers and critics a tool for describing how a work of literature functions, and Stefans' "simples" are intended to enable readers to not only identify techniques used to produce digital literary art but also to better understand how authors deploy these poetic effects meaningfully.

(Source: Eric Dean Rasmussen)