Pre-web Digital Publishing and the Lore of Electronic Literature

di Astrid Ensslin (Autore)

Cambridge University Press, 2022

This Element examines a watershed moment in the recent history of digital publishing through a case study of the pre-web, serious hypertext periodical, the Eastgate Quarterly Review of Hypertext (1994-1995). Early hypertext writing relied on standalone, mainframe computers and specialized authoring software. With the Web launching as a mass distribution platform, EQRH faced a fast-evolving technological landscape, paired with an emergent gift and open access economy. Its non-linear writing experiments afford key insights into historical, medium-specific authoring practices. Access constraints have left EQRH under-researched and threatened by obsolescence. To address this challenge, this study offers platform-specific analyses of all the EQRH's cross-media materials, including works that have hitherto escaped scholarly attention. It deploys a form of conceptually oral ethno-historiography: the lore of electronic literature. The Element deepens our understanding of the North American publishing industry's history and contributes to the overdue preservation of early digital writing.

• Autore: Astrid Ensslin
• Editore: Cambridge University Press
• Collana: Elements in Publishing and Book Culture
• Anno: 2022
• Rilegatura: Paperback / softback
• Pagine: 75 p.
• Dimensioni: 178 x 127 mm
• Peso: 146 gr.
• EAN: 9781108828888

Testo in English