Abstract
This essay attempts to capture the digital turn that took place at the start of the twenty-first century with emphasis placed on an early e-lit work, by Reiner Strasser and M.D. Coverley (Marjorie Luesebrink) titled ii-in the white darkness: about [the fragility of] memory (2003–2004). This online multimedia narrative serves as a lens through which light is shed on the cultural shift that took place at the start of the 2000s due to internet expansion and the popularization of a number of software tools, as is Flash, whose use widened the spectrum of creative expression and interdisciplinary collaboration. With the use of examples from the primary source and various theoretical insights, this essay talks about the reading habits that have been formulated and the interweaving of literary elements with digital textuality. As for the reference to the current obsolescence of the Flash technology, the essay considers the risks digital ephemerality entails.
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Notes
- 1.
According to Rettberg “Electronic literature is a generalized term used to describe a wide variety of computational literary practices beneath one broad umbrella, defined by the Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) as ‘works with important literary aspects that take advantage of the capabilities and contexts provided by the stand- alone or networked computer’” (2014, 169). As regards ELO, Marjorie Coverley Luesebrink notes that it “was founded in 1999 to foster and promote the reading, writing, teaching, and understanding of literature as it develops and persists in a changing digital environment” (2014, 174).
- 2.
The specific work was initially published in January 2004 on Strasser’s website. In 2006, it appeared on the online anthology titled Electronic Literature Collection Vol. 1. In 2018, the ELO gave a copy of this work to the Electronic Literature Lab.
- 3.
Jessica Pressman describes the gradual evolution of the web that led to the dominance of Flash as follows: “In the mid-1990s innovations in graphical interfaces transformed the text-based Internet into the image-laden web, exponentially expanding its users and possibilities. The nature of electronic literature changed dramatically. First generation electronic literature, the lengthy text-based hypertexts built in Storyspace or HTML […] gave way to a second generation of dynamic, visual, and animated works. Second generation works explore and exploit the features of new authoring software packages. Most dominant among them was Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash), which enables the production of multimedia, multimodal, and interactive aesthetics. First generation text-based narratives quickly looked outdated in comparison to the flashy facades of new, Flash-based works” (2014, 6–7).
- 4.
Flash is described as follows: “A commercial system particularly useful for vector-based animation. It was first developed and sold by Macromedia; that company has been acquired by Adobe, which currently sells Flash” (Hayles et al. 2006).
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Rapatzikou, T.G. (2024). Electronic Literature at the Dawn of the 21st century: The Case of Reiner Strasser and M.D. Coverley’s ii-in the white darkness: about [the fragility of] memory. In: Tsimpouki, T., Blatanis, K., Tseti, A. (eds) American Studies after Postmodernism. Renewing the American Narrative. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41448-0_15
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