Watching Textual Screens Then and Now: Text Movies, Electronic Literature, and the Continuum of Countertextual Practice.

Contemporary works of electronic literature that focus on the use of moving text are aesthetically related to the text movies that arose in the experimental film community, particularly in the 1960s, and both share much in common with concrete and visual poetry. Though criticism has traditionally pl...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Published in:CounterText Vol. 2; no. 2; pp. 172 - 191
Main Author: Wingate, Steven
Format: Article
Published: Edinburgh University Press Aug2016
Subjects:
Online Access:View this record in EBSCOhost
fields @attributes:
  recordID: 1
pdfLink:
plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=118171717&site=ehost-live
header:
  @attributes:
    shortDbName: hlh
    uiTerm: 118171717
    longDbName: Humanities International Complete
    uiTag: AN
  controlInfo:
    bkinfo:
    jinfo:
      jid:
        20564406
        JRXS
      jtl: CounterText
      issn: 20564406
      maglogo: N
    pubinfo:
      dt: Aug2016
      vid: 2
      iid: 2
      pid: 2327
      pub: Edinburgh University Press
    artinfo:
      ui:
        118171717
        10.3366/count.2016.0051
      ppf: 172
      ppct: 19
      formats:
        fmt:
          @attributes:
            type: P
            size: 121KB
      tig:
        atl: Watching Textual Screens Then and Now: Text Movies, Electronic Literature, and the Continuum of Countertextual Practice.
      aug:
        au: Wingate, Steven
      su:
        Content analysis
        Hypertext literature
        Experimental films
        Visual poetry
        Digitization
      sug:
        subj:
          Content analysis
          Hypertext literature
          Experimental films
          Visual poetry
          Digitization
      keyword:
        concrete poetry
        countertextual practice
        digital literature
        electronic literature
        experimental cinema
        text movies
        textual screen
        visual poetry
      ab: Contemporary works of electronic literature that focus on the use of moving text are aesthetically related to the text movies that arose in the experimental film community, particularly in the 1960s, and both share much in common with concrete and visual poetry. Though criticism has traditionally placed a barrier between works of electronic literature and cinematic text movies on the basis of their perceived medium (cinema characterised by emulsion and electronic literature characterised by computer code), textual screen works originating from both media utilise similar techniques in the presentation and manipulation of text. Interactivity is potentially a differentiator between electronic literature and cinema, but this distinction is negated by the fact that not all works of electronic literature are interactive (that is, they do not require an interactor in order to function). The increasing digitisation and, to a lesser extent, interactivity of cinema also argues against placing a gap between electronic literature and cinematic works that utilise the textual screen. Text movies, visual poetry, and other digital works featuring moving text can be seen as belonging to the same family; they are united by the aesthetic experience of perceiving them, which derives from a dynamic tension between the act of reading and the act of watching. Taken together, they form a continuum of countertextual practice that involves the destabilisation of reading and the displacement of literary significance away from traditional means of sense-making and towards the use of text-as-objects that do not always achieve the status of language.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
    refInfo:
    copyright:
      @attributes:
        flag: Y
      custom: Copyright of CounterText is the property of Edinburgh University Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.
      item: CounterText
      holder: Edinburgh University Press
      dt:
        @attributes:
          year: 2016
    holdings:
      @attributes:
        islocal: N