Network Literacies

This subject critically examines current theory relating to networked writing practices and, in particular, hypertext. Does the embodiment of electronic writing in the form of stand alone hypertext applications or in the form of the World Wide Web (through Hypertext Markup Up Language – HTML) change our relationship as readers to the written word? Does electronic writing, as Mark Poster argues, represent a third stage in the mode of information in which “the self is decentred, dispersed, and multiplied in continuous instability?”

Alongside these questions, students will be introduced to the basics of HTML and other networked writing tools asked to consider the experience of writing in an online, electronic environment (namely, the WWW). What are the rules (if any) which govern this new writing space and to what extent has a rhetoric of electronic writing been developed? Students will be encouraged to rethink the concept of writing in a networked writing environment.

Classes

Classes are held on Monday (day) and Tuesday (evening)