ABSTRACT
What is experimental literature? How has experimentation affected the course of literary history, and how is it shaping literary expression today? Literary experiment has always been diverse and challenging, but never more so than in our age of digital media and social networking, when the very category of the literary is coming under intense pressure. How will literature reconfigure itself in the future?
The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature maps this expansive and multifaceted field, with essays on:
- the history of literary experiment from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present
- the impact of new media on literature, including multimodal literature, digital fiction and code poetry
- the development of experimental genres from graphic narratives and found poetry through to gaming and interactive fiction
- experimental movements from Futurism and Surrealism to Postmodernism, Avant-Pop and Flarf.
Shedding new light on often critically neglected terrain, the contributors introduce this vibrant area, define its current state, and offer exciting new perspectives on its future.
This volume is the ideal introduction for those approaching the study of experimental literature for the first time or looking to further their knowledge.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
chapter |18 pages
Introduction
part |2 pages
PART I The historical avant-gardes
chapter |15 pages
Italian Futurism and Russian Cubo-Futurism
chapter |14 pages
The surrealist experiments with language
chapter |13 pages
The literary absurd
chapter |14 pages
Spontaneity and improvisation in postwar experimental poetry
chapter |12 pages
The nouveau roman and Tel Quel
chapter |14 pages
Lettrism and situationism
chapter |13 pages
OuLiPo and proceduralism
chapter |13 pages
Metafiction
chapter |13 pages
Postmodernism and experiment
chapter |14 pages
Sexing the text Women’s avant-garde writing in the twentieth century
chapter |14 pages
Experiments in black African-American avant-garde poetics
chapter |13 pages
Avant-Pop
chapter |12 pages
Post-postmodernism
chapter |14 pages
Globalization and transnationalism
chapter |15 pages
Altermodernist fiction
chapter |14 pages
Manifestos and Ars Poetica
chapter |12 pages
Post-criticism Conceptual takes
part |2 pages
PART II Experiment now: printed matter
chapter |17 pages
The expanded field of L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E
chapter |12 pages
Concrete poetry and prose
chapter |13 pages
Found poetry, “uncreative writing,” and the art of appropriation
chapter |15 pages
Words in visual art
chapter |13 pages
Hoax-poetry and inauthenticity
chapter |17 pages
Unnatural voices, minds, and narration
chapter |12 pages
Impossible worlds
chapter |13 pages
Experimental life writing
chapter |14 pages
“Rotting time” Genre fiction and the avant-garde
chapter |13 pages
Graphic narrative
chapter |15 pages
Multimodal literature and experimentation
chapter |15 pages
Interactive fiction
part |2 pages
PART III Experiment now: beyond the page