Exploring Powerlessness in Digital Literature
Created By:
Blake Aschenbrener, Savannah Walters, and Sriram Satyavolu
THEME:
A common thread throughout our selected works is the idea of powerlessness. Both in the readers and the character(s) in the story seem to lack control over the events that occur. We explore the ideas of how control and mechanics stimulate this feeling for the parties involved. APPROACH:
When approaching electronic literature, it is important to view all aspects including both text and media. We analyzed the media to determine how it evokes emotion within the reader to change the overall meaning of the text. The primary aspects we focused on were sounds and visual aspects, such as image and videos, and through these components, we were able to analyze the works. Many of these images we encountered are included on each page to support the arguments with first-hand evidence.INSIGHTS:
Collectively, we decided on two main insights that shaped our arguments for our individual works. The first one refers to the mechanics of the work where each of the individual works uses the mechanism of digital media to increase empathy with the reader. The formatting adds another layer to the story, and immerse the reader more into the work. The reader experiences the feeling of work and connects the story at hand. Another insight refers to the aspect of control in the works. Each work deals with control in different ways, but a commonality is that the control is provided to the reader by the author. The reader has a sense of freedom that shapes the way that the literature is experienced.NAVIGATION:
As the reader, you have the choice of which content you would like to read first. Each individual story will lead you through the path of that story, but you are still given the option to choose another story. Included in this page, is the curated works of each of the stories were discussed. We recommend running through each work to get a sense of what the story is before reading through our introductions. Pathways (the links at the bottom of the page) are used to jump from page to page within the book. Hyperlinks often lead to outside websites with the exception being the table of contents.Curated Works:
Motions by Will LuersBlake Aschenbrener
I Got Whacked in the Face with a Baseball Bat by Young-Hae Chang Heavy Industries
Sriram Satyavolu
Untraced by Serge Bouchardon
Savannah Walters