How do you do a review of Literature for a emerging and divergent field that is as mercurial as it is contested? A field that is too broad to pin down besides being a loose set of cultural practices around reading and writing that have something to do with computational media?
The immensity of this question was initially paralyzing. After surveying various approaches to writing a Literature Review for the field occasionally called "Electronic Literature". Within the larger cultural contexts, the field felt too diaphanous to gain any simple purchase.
In the interest of time, I began to narrow my options. Originally, I was going to trace how a taxonomy of the field had developed. Or trace divergent theories of reading practices. Both these are interesting and very worthy scholarly topics that could make a good Literature Review. However, I realized what I was really interested in. Writing. My current writing efforts wanted an anchor. So, I would write about theories and practice centered on writing/in/for/through media. This will be a bit interesting, since it seems that not much exists of this sort of published material. As the "field" exists currently, there is more theory than actual work to theorize:) Therefore, I've begun to tap various practitioners/theorists for recommendations of published works that address writing process, product, and theory. The work can either be their own or a recommendation.
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