Hyperliterary revolution is on
Dr. Eva Acqui, hyperliterary theorist, speaks to The Independent
Dr. Eva Acqui is an award winning literary critic and one of the few hypertextual theorists with a diverse background. Besides teaching English and communication in Europe, the multilingual scholar formulates theories on cyber contents. Shahidul K K Shuvra of The Independent recently spoke to her about the ongoing hyperliterary revolution in the world. As an IT Editor of the newspaper, he narrated the outcome of the following exclusive interview.
The Independent: Hypertext is one of the newest terminologies of literary theory. As an internationally acclaimed hypertext expert can you elaborate on its meaning?
Dr. Eva: Hypertext is nonsequential writing, a text that allows alternatives, choices of reading, by following its links, at an interactive screen. It is a text made up by lexias (fragments) connected by links, allowing the reader selection and choice in reading.
The Independent: Who coined the term first and what is the latest development in the field?
Dr. Eva: Professor Theodor Holm Nelson, designer, consultant, founder of the original hypertext project, Project Xanadu, coined the term in the sixties, as a starting point in explaining and sharing his view on the future of information and the media. Since then there has been a wide range of experimenting with hypertext use in various fields, given its high flexibility in structure and development in the virtual environment, ensured by links and navigation, the richness of reference, the speed of connection to related information, materials, etc.
The Independent: You are one of the few people who have done a PhD in this field: what was the problem that you tried to solve theoretically?
Dr. Eva: Having studied literature, literary theory and criticism, history of literature, theory of language, writing and composition for many years, I came to a point where I needed all these fields combined to get an overall perspective of literary works, of possibilities in writing with availability of rich, precise, reliable reference. The critical and theoretical perspectives on literary work had become more complex, with several angles of interpretation and analysis, and I needed some means to express that. It took me some time though to pay attention to the word "hypertextual" and its practical meaning. That's how I came across Professor Nelson's book The Future of Information: Ideas, Connections, and the Gods of Electronic Literature. The many points of view on a literary work, for instance, could be expressed all at the same time, in full and very richly, leaving the choice of selecting the most important one to the readers themselves. It took a few years of research to see how possibilities of hypertexts could be used from theory to creation: here I found myself sharing the opinion expressed by world-renowned novelist and semiotician Umberto Eco, that there are texts to consult, for reference, and texts to read. So, after having read a large volume of literary texts created, written in hypertextual format, I realised that the theoretical and critical approach lacked the necessary "tools" for interpretation: I had to put together principles of critical and theoretical approach for hyperliterary texts, I needed a set of hyperliterary terms, and a hyperliterary critical model, based on literary constants and ideas. My thesis, Bases of Hyperliterary Theory and Criticism, attempts to establish a critical and theoretical system, an open one.
The Independent: Can you explain your experience with the world class hypertext experts who accompanied and influenced your research?
Dr. Eva: I recall the excitement I experienced when, as a doctoral candidate, I was assigned to Professor Ferenczi Laszlo, PhD, President of the Hungarian Institute of Literary Research at the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Professor at the prestigious ELTE Budapest, Hungary, through the School of Doctoral Studies of the University of Miskolc, Hungary. Professor Ferenczi understood my research objectives and he coordinated my work leaving me lots of freedom in elaborating my thesis. He is a writer and a theoretician of exception and was proud to coordinate Hungary's first doctoral thesis in this field. The other world-renowned personality is Professor Theodor Holm Nelson, visiting Professor, University of Southampton, England, Senior Fellow, the McLuhan Institute, Toronto, Canada, with whom I had the honour to get in touch by email. The third researcher and professor who greatly influenced and encouraged my work by his perspective on the criticism of literary ideas, was Professor Adrian Marino, PhD, of Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
The Independent: Once we thought readership would be declining in favour of the rise of computer applications and the Internet. What do you think about it?
Dr. Eva: Readership has not been declining, on the contrary, it has become more complex. Reading hyperliterature, for instance, is much more demanding, given the richness of links a hyperliterary text may contain. Navigating along the links to get more details on the text demands a reader who is not bent only on linearity, but is willing to go through the links and "build" the text according to his own interest, who is willing to enrich his experience of the text.
The Independent: What are the special parts of cyber literature? Which can enrich writers and literature?
Dr. Eva: I'm not sure I would talk about "parts" of cyber literature, but about the enrichment in relation to literature, writers, and readers. Literature, generally speaking, goes through enrichment in means of creation, "tools", references, and a much richer background of explanatory reference in terms of theory, language, history of literature. Writers have a variety of possibilities in creating the most varied texts, given the existence of links and accessibility. Readers are provided the choice of aleatory reading, the focus on their own points of interest, the chance to participate as creators themselves, by choosing their own paths of reading, through navigation from link to link. The possibilities provided by hyper-reading and writing are characterised by a high degree of variety and flexibility.
The Independent: Is all this connected to the improvement of the quality of literature?
Dr. Eva: The quality of literature has been and will always be provided by ideas, words, perspective: the means provided by the computers are only alternatives for creation, writing, reading, they are not the ones that provide quality.
The Independent: Cyber readers like to read blogs of a few hundred words, features, articles, poems, short stories etc on the World Wide Web. Fiction has quite a volume to be uploaded on the net. So what is its future regarding cyber involvement?
Dr. Eva: If we are talking only about fiction, then let's once again clarify the fact that cyber space provides alternatives for fiction, it does not at all replace writing of fiction in print. What has already been written and printed does not necessarily have to go on electronic format. Those who write can resort to the means provided by the computer world, but they can as well publish their work in print. I hope that my opinion also answers your question whether the traditional books will be forsaken in favour of the options provided by cyber space.
The Independent: How do postmodern writers benefit from all this?
Dr. Eva: Postmodern writers have the proper opportunity to join the "spiritual project of postmodernity", a project to which literature and all the arts remain vital, as Ihab Hassan expresses it in From Postmodernism to Postmodernity: the Local/Global Context, that is they can cultivate a more dialogical approach to diverse cultures, natures, to the world itself, given the openness provided by cyber space.
The Independent: Will this help budding writers or established writers more? Is it profitable in terms of getting easily published and get the attention of readers everywhere?
Dr. Eva: Cyber space and hyperliterature can help both budding and established writers, being an alternative manner to enhance popularity, publishing, forms of publishing especially, the contact between them and the reading public, the feedback of readers and the speed of all processes related to creation, writing, growth in popularity etc.
The Independent: How does hyperliterature reshape literature nowadays?
Dr. Eva: We are still distinguishing between literature in print and electronic literature, and these will go hand in hand for times to come, because the means they provide for the existence of literature enhance its relationship with the reading public, one being an alternative for the other. This should not be a question of reshaping literature, but rather one of a fruitful co-existence in favour of the reading public and the elevation of its cultural level.
Note: E-content of Shahidul K K Shuvra is picked by Dr. Eva Acqui for her hyperliterary researches. Caption- Dr. Eva Acqui frankly speaks to The Independent on recent developments in 'Hyperliterary Theory' The Independent 9 July 2010 * Shahidul K K Shuvra Editor of IT and Science pages The Independent 01715245459
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