PRESENTATION: What is Hypertext?

June 17th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Abstract: Literary hypertext theory has petered out in the last decade, giving way to studies on narrative in computer games, and narrative generation through social media outlets. With the current mass digitalization of texts into proprietary databases such as Google Books, ECCO, and EEBO, it is time to reconsider what it means for a text to be hypertextual, in order to turn digitization into something useful above being a representation of paper on screen. This paper will explore a new methodology for approaching hypertext and how this can facilitate our understanding of literary texts.


Simon Rowberry. ”What is Hypertext?: A Literary Perspective.” Research Student Symposium. June 2011. University of Winchester

POSTER: Pale Fire as Hypertextual Network.

June 10th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Abstract: Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire (1962) [3] is often seen as the gold standard to which all other print-based literary hypertexts are compared [see 1 and 2 for two examples of the admiration of Pale Fire from the literary hypertext community]. It was also a point of inspiration for Ted Nelson while developing his early hypertext systems. Although frequently referenced, the underlying network has never successfully been mapped or explored beyond a surface level. This poster posits a single model for representing the connections made throughout the novel, color-coded, so one can see which parts represent the poem, commentary and index (figure 1).

http://www.ht2011.org/demos_posters/ht2011_submission_137.pdf

PUBLICATION: Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire: the lost ’father of all hypertext demos’?

June 8th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Abstract: In the mid-sixties, Ted Nelson worked at Brown University on an early hypertext system. In 1969, IBM wanted to show the system at a conference, and Nelson gained permission to use Vladimir Nabokov’s highly unconventional and hypertextual novel, Pale Fire (1962) as a technical demonstration of hypertext’s potential. Unfortunately, the idea was dismissed in favor of a more technical-looking presentation, and thus was never demonstrated publicly. This paper re-considers Pale Fire’s position in hypertext history, and posits that if it was used in this early hypertext demonstration, it would have been the ‘father of all hypertext demonstrations’ to complement Douglas Engelbart’s ‘Mother of All Demos’ in 1968. In order to demonstrate the significance of Pale Fire’s hypertextuality and Nelson’s ambitions to use it, this paper will explore its hypertextual structure, the implication thereof for the novel and evaluate its success as a hypertext compared to electronic systems.

Simon Rowberry (2011), “Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire: the lost ’father of all hypertext demos’?” in Proceedings of the 22nd ACM conference on Hypertext and hypermedia., 319-324. HT ’11. New York, NY, USA: ACM, 2011.
http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=1995966.1996008

PUBLICATION: Literary Criticism and Hypertext

June 8th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Abstract: In a rare essay, Thomas Pynchon, the famously reclusive author, talks about the ‘do-it-yourself hypertextualist’, who fits into his discourse on paranoia. This paper will start to explore the questions of paranoia in both literary criticism and hypertext theory. It will focus on the paranoia inherent within one-to-one links from both general, authoritative systems, and the network of personal reader response using examples from literature including Thomas Pynchon and Vladimir Nabokov.

Simon Rowberry (2011), ”Literary Criticism and Hypertext or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Paranoia?” in Proceedings of the Narrative and Hypertext Workship ACM Hypertext 2011. http://nht.ecs.soton.ac.uk/2011/papers/7-srowberry.pdf

PRESENTATION: Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire: The Lost ’Father of all hypertext demos’?

June 8th, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Abstract: In the mid-sixties, Ted Nelson worked at Brown University on an early hypertext system. In 1969, IBM wanted to show the system at a conference, and Nelson gained permission to use Vladimir Nabokov’s highly unconventional and hypertextual novel, Pale Fire (1962) as a technical demonstration of hypertext’s potential. Unfortunately, the idea was dismissedin favor of a more technical-looking presentation, and thus was never demonstrated publicly. This paper re-considers Pale Fire’s position in hypertext history, and posits that if it was used in this early hypertext demonstration, it would have been the ‘father of all hypertext demonstrations’ to complement Douglas Engelbart’s ‘Mother of All Demos’ in 1968. In order to demonstrate the significance of Pale Fire’s hypertextuality and Nelson’s ambitions to use it, this paper will explore its hypertextual structure, the implication thereof for the novel and evaluate its success as a hypertext compared to electronic systems.


Simon Rowberry. ”Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire: The Lost ’Father of all hypertext demos’?” ACM Hypertext 2011. June 2011. Technical University/Eindhoven, Netherlands

Nabokov’s Do-It-Yourself Didacticism: Hypertext in Lolita and Pale Fire

May 2nd, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Abstract: Lolita and Pale Fire are two of Nabokov’s most morally challenging novels and in an – likely vain – attempt to distinguish himself from the narrator and thus, the moral difficulty in the text, Nabokov distances himself from the text by employing hypertextual tropes including hyperlinks and transclusion, that is layering of one text within another. In both texts, Nabokov uses these tropes in order to subvert the usual cause and effect model that influences one’s idea of morality, in particular the proclamation of death far before the cause and motive, thereby complicating the issue of morality in the text and bypassing a straightforward didactic reading. Pale Fire’s hypertextuality is well documented as the discourse between Shade’s poem, Kinbote’s commentary and meta-commentary, and Nabokov’s select few hints to reader as to how to read the novel. In Lolita, Nabokov uses the framing device of John Ray Jr.’s foreword, Nabokov’s afterword, and hypertextual layering within the text to dislocate the spatio-temporal aspects of the text, revealing the novel’s conclusion in a fictional foreword. Nabokov uses this hypertextuality not only to subvert cause and effect but also to make the texts irresolvable and thus add ambiguity and plurality into the text. For example, recent discourse on Lolita highlights that the reader does not know Lolita’s true name. If one cannot even resolve the most basic signifiers in the text, such as a central character’s name, then it becomes more difficult to make profound moral judgements regarding the text without effort and consideration. Thus, although Nabokov uses hypertext to distance himself from didacticism, he empowers the reader to choose his or her own moral position in relation to these difficult texts.

Simon Rowberry, ”Nabokov’s Do-It-Yourself Didacticism: Hypertext in Lolita and Pale Fire.” Nabokov and Morality. May 2011. University of Strathclyde

PRESENTATION: Networked Literature: Hypertextuality inside and outside Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire

February 2nd, 2011 § 0 comments § permalink

Abstract: Ted Nelson, creator of hypertext, defines a literature as a set of interconnected documents. Literary fiction is an apt demonstration of this because novels tend to be intertextual and share motifs. In this regard, Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire acts as a microcosm of literature, displaying many forms of hypertextuality apparent within literature and literary criticism, which have shared a symbiotic relationship since pre-Gutenberg times. The novel takes the form of the late John Shade’s final poem and commentary supplied by madman Charles Kinbote, which assumes roughly eighty percent of the novel, overshadowing the poem, the supposed focus of the text. Kinbote’s commentary reflects literary criticism, making explicit references to the poem, itself through cross-references and other criticism. Nabokov also plants ‘search nodes’ in the text to supplement these connections, whereby the reader has to hunt down clues in order to probe enigmata within the text, a form of hypertextuality identical to search engines. There is also a secondary network within literature, which exists without the outer shell of criticism, that of intertextuality and motifs, also either visible through explicit references to texts or hidden. All of this can be mapped out within Pale Fire but equally applies to the entirety of literature because of the symbiotic relationship between literary fiction and criticism. By using this framework, we can analyze Kinbote as a critic within the network of fiction and criticism. Kinbote often resorts to personal connections to the text, overawing the poem and its potential over any other pertinent meanings. This paper will explore if Kinbote’s position in the text as a critic requires him to enter into the network of literature to become a successful critic.

Simon Rowberry. ”Networked Literature: Hypertextuality inside and outside Vladimir Nabokov’s Pale Fire.” RKE Symposium. February 2011. University of Winchester

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