Book List
Hypertext 2.0: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology (Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society), 1997
Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology (Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society), 1991
Hyper/Text/Theory, 1994
Hypermedia and Literary Studies, 1994 (with Paul Delany)
The Digital Word: Text-Based Computing in the Humanities, 1993 (with Paul Delany)
Elegant Jeremiahs: The Sage from Carlyle to Mailer, 1986
A Pre-Raphaelite Friendship: The Correspondence of William Holman Hunt and John Lucas Tupper, 1986
Ladies of Shalott: A Victorian Masterpiece and Its Contexts, 1985
Images of Crisis: Literary Iconology, 1750 to the Present, 1982
Victorian Types, Victorian Shadows; Biblical Typology in Victorian Literature, Art, and Thought, 1980
Approaches to Victorian Autobiography, 1979
William Holman Hunt and Typological Symbolism, 1979
The Aesthetic and Critical Theories of John Ruskin, 1972
Hypertext 3.0: Critical Theory and New Media in a Global Era (Parallax: Re-visions of Culture and Society) by GP Landow (Paperback - 14 Feb 2006)
George Landow's widely acclaimed Hypertext was the first book to bring together the worlds of literary theory and computer technology. Landow was one of the first scholars to explore the implications of giving readers instant, easy access to a virtual library of sources as well as unprecedented control of what and how they read. In hypermedia, Landow saw a strikingly literal embodiment of many major points of contemporary literary theory, particularly Derrida's idea of "de-centering" and Barthes's conception of the "readerly" versus "writerly" text. From Intermedia to Microcosm, Storyspace, and the World Wide Web, Landow offers specific information about the kinds of hypertext, different modes of linking, attitudes toward technology, and the proliferation of pornography and gambling on the Internet. For the third edition he includes new material on developing Internet-related technologies, considering in particular their increasingly global reach and the social and political implications of this trend as viewed from a postcolonial perspective. He also discusses blogs, interactive film, and the relation of hypermedia to games. Thoroughly expanded and updated, this pioneering work continues to be the "ur-text" of hypertext studies.
"Landow['s] . . . presentation is measured, experiential, lucid, moderate, and sensible. He merely points out that the concept 'hypertext' lets us test some concepts associated with critical theory, and gracefully shows how the technology is contributing to reconfigurations of text, author, narrative, and (literary) education."—Postmodern Culture , reviewing a previous edition or volume
"Worth reading, whether one's initial mood is enthusiasm, skepticism, or simple curiosity."—Contemporary Sociology , reviewing a previous edition or volume
"A bold and enthusiastic prediction of the impact of hypertext on literature and pedagogy."—Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature , reviewing a previous edition or volume
"In this insightful and readable volume, Landow explores the relationship between contemporary literary and social theory and the latest advances in computer software."—Voice Literary Supplement , reviewing a previous edition or volume
"Challenges the reader . . . Because it invites (and nearly requires) readers to place themselves in more than one position: as a student of communication theory, as a student of computer science, as a student of academic publishing, or as a student of literature."—Paul Baker, Education PR Blog
George P. Landow is a professor of English and art history at Brown University.
George Landow was amongst the early few to spot the similarities between modern literary theory and the technological possibilities of hypertext programmes. This is the third of his publications which explore connexions between them. The general argument he makes is that the digitization of text coupled with the associative links of hypertext represents a development of revolutionary potential.
It
makes new literary forms available, blurs distinctions between
existing genres ['boundary erasure'] and makes possible anything from
multimedia compilations started by authors but completed by their
readers, to texts which are 'unreproducible' because of their size
and their constant revision.
His introductory essay is an
invigorating mixture of reports on hypertext projects and visionary
ideas of the kind promoted by Jay Bolter and Nicholas Negroponte.
Unfortunately, his fellow contributors fail to match his standard.
The other essays deal with non-linearity as one of the essential
features of hypertext, the politics of this branch of IT, and what
promotes itself as new writing - 'hypertext fiction', a somewhat
dubious notion over which there is still much debate.
They range enthusiastically over topics as diverse as Wittgenstein's notebooks, films and narratology, and forms of classical rhetoric. But much of their exposition is clogged with silly jargon ['texton', 'scripton', 'screener'] which is depressingly rife amidst professionals in the field of cultural studies.
At their worst the essays deal in speculation rather than reporting on practical experiences or successful projects. Mireille Rosello for instance at one point drops to the level of conceptual art when she spends two or three pages describing what an imaginary hypertext programme could be like. Since there are unsung technical writers out there in the field constructing hypertext programmes for real right now, this is a feeble and self-indulgent substitute. There are just too many questions raised, not enough empirical data or answers.
One further dispiriting feature is the tendency of the authors to draw on the same material, and even worse to quote each other. It is one thing for them to [quite understandably] cite Ted Nelson as a hypertext visionary, but when yet another reference to Thomas Pynchon occurs in the fourth or fifth essay, one wonders if these aren't the papers of some post-graduate club. This suspicion is reinforced by the tendency for them all to quote from the same fashionable cultural theorists - Deleuze, Guattari, Baudrillard, and Lyotard. The collection ends with a piece of post-Modernist tosh by Gregory L Ulmar which weaves a tissue of non-sequiturs around a contrived verbal connexion between Wittgenstein [again] and Carmen Miranda.
In Landow's own survey of current programmes and projects [written, one supposes, circa 1993/94] it is interesting to note how often he describes the hypertext systems available by using the telling metaphor of a 'web' of connexions. The World Wide Web which was under development at that very time now makes available many of the linkages dreamed of from Vannevar Bush onwards. And most importantly, they are available not merely for some technological elite as in the past, but for whoever wishes to use them. This is a democratizing influence which will have a profound effect upon the construction, assembly, and cross-linking of information - and Landow knows it. One of the driving forces behind this collection of essays is to make these possibilities known. I imagine that a further post-WWW volume is on its way right now - but I hope he writes the book himself.
“Author: George P. Landow” © LibraryThing/Tim Spalding. http://www.librarything.com/author/landowgeorgep
“Hypertext 3.0 Critical Theory and New Media in an Era of Globalization” The Johns Hopkins University Press http://www.press.jhu.edu/books/title_pages/8902.html
“Hyper/Text/Theory essays on literature and literary theory in the digital age” © Roy Johnson. 1995 <http://www.mantex.co.uk/reviews/landow-1.htm>
