WISE: Literature and the Internet

It is widely held that the term 'cyberspace' first appeared not in the giddy reports of business consultants or futurologists, but in a short story by science fiction author William Gibson. Literature has long functioned as a kind of incubator for some of the most important concepts and metaphors that we use to understand the massive transformations that digital technologies have effected within modern life. In this class, we will read novels, short stories, and poetry from the last fifty years that try to capture the new forms of experience that these technologies' considered broadly under the rubric of 'the internet' have brought into being. Drawing on media-theoretical and Marxist approaches in particular, we will work together to develop a critical vocabulary for analyzing the two-way traffic between digital media and literary forms, from cyberpunk fiction to Instagram poetry. (Note: This Writing-Intensive Seminar in English (WISE) course fulfills WIM for English majors. Non-majors are welcome, space permitting. For enrollment permission contact vbeebe@stanford.edu.)