One day seminar on Literature and Digital Media (Paris 8)

Université Paris 8 Vincennes à Saint-Denis, EA 1569 Transferts critiques et Dynamique des savoirs, CRLC & Le Texte étranger ; Intergroupe de recherche sur la textualité et l’écriture à l’âge numérique :

One-day seminar on literature and digital media.
Saturday June 27, 2009
Université Paris 8, Room : D143.
Contact : yabrioux@aol.com

The Centre de Recherche sur la Littérature et la Cognition and Texte étranger (EA 1569 Transferts critiques et Dynamique des savoirs [domaine anglophone]), in conjunction with the inter-university research group Textualité et écriture à l’âge numérique, are pleased to announce the organization of a one-day seminar on literature and digital media to be held at the University of Paris 8 on Saturday June 27. This seminar follows on from the one held last February, also at Paris 8.

9.30-9.45 Introduction: Yves Abrioux (Université Pars 8).
9.45-11.00 Steve Tomasula (Notre Dame University)
The American novelist Steve Tomasula is currently completing a new work, TOC, and will talk about its making. Starting from a discussion of his earlier works Book of Portraiture and VAS as word-image book objects, he will discuss TOC as an extension of the book that takes advantage of a digital medium.
While he is in Paris, Steve Tomasula be invited to present his work at the Observatoire de la Littérature Américaine (ODELA, University of Paris 7) on Monday, June 29. He will also be giving two readings: on Thursday, June 25 at 7 p.m. at the Shakespeare and Co bookshop (St Michel, Notre Dame); on Monday, June 29 at 7.30 p.m. at the Red Wheelbarrow bookshop (St Paul, le Marais).
His talk will be introduced by Anne-Laure Tissut (Université Paris 4).

11.00-12.00 Translating and republishing electronic literature: a round-table discussion chaired by Emmanuel Cyriaque (Éditions Hyx, Orléans).
12.00-14.00 Lunch. If you wish to join the speakers for lunch at a Chinese restaurant nearby, please e-mail yabrioux@aol.com.

14.00-15.00 Maria Engberg (Blekinge Institute of Technology)
Forms and Figurations in New Media Writing. In her current research Maria Engberg is investigating the impact of digital media on narrative fiction. In digital works as well as in works in print, the changing situation for writing is making itself known through the possibilities that digital technologies offer for creation, publication, and presentation. While the consequences of these paradigmatic shifts in our culture may not yet be fully comprehensible, there are literary forms that through their artifice and content comment and reflect on the changing situation. Digital literature, i.e. literature created and published with and through digital computer technology, has emerged in the last decades, and consequently research, too, about the literary forms that these technologies can emphasize or rejuvenate. Likewise, printed works are showing signs of “digital” manipulation or creation. Primarily, these effects are visible in visual ornamentation and layout of the printed text and the inclusion of photographs, drawings, and other visual material. Maria Engberg studies a range of literary genres for these “effects” of the digital, investigating how new and existing forms shape the way that narratives are created and experienced. In her presentation, she will discuss digital works by John Cayley and Stephanie Strickland as examples of how reading and writing change in the age of digital media.
Maria Engberg’s talk will be introduced by Yves Abrioux (Université Paris 8).

15.00-16.00 Critical theory and practice and/in digital media: a round-table discussion chaired by Antoine Cazé (Université Paris 7), including a critical review of the project for an on-line network of short theoretical texts currently being set up by the research group Textualité et écriture à l’âge numérique.

To reach Université Paris 8, take metro line 13 to the terminus: Saint-Denis Université. The university is right opposite the exit. In the entrance hall, take the door on the right at the far end. Pass between the two buildings marked “B” and proceed towards building “D”, which you approach by taking the path between a newly-installed lawn with trees and a building with a cafeteria on the ground floor. Room D143 is up one flight of stairs.