Electronic Literature by Scott Rettberg (review)

Is it mere coincidence that I am given the opportunity to simultaneously review John Cayley's Grammalepsy and Scott Rettberg's Electronic Literature? Regardless of the very different scope and purpose of these two great books, the former more theoretically and conceptually oriented (although one should not underestimate the strong conceptualization and real theoretical thinking of Rettberg), the latter having a more directly encyclopedic ambition (even if Cayley's book can also be used by all those who are interested in a thorough mapping of the field), their more-or-less joint publication is probably a sign of the times. More and more books are being published that manage to combine the best of both worlds: a large overview of what electronic literature (and, as we know, the term is far from being accepted by all those working in this field) has been yet also currently represents and an in-depth theoretical reflection on the actual meaning and challenges as well as restrictions and obstacles of this type of writing (and it should be clear from the start that the notion of writing can no longer be restricted to written language alone, in spite of the fact that even after the visual and digital turn, written language remains at the center of what is happening in electronic literature at large).

As one of the key practitioners as well as theoreticians in the field, Rettberg approaches electronic literature as a form of experimental writing. This is an important initial claim for two reasons. First of all, it allows establishment of a kind of a priori continuity between analog forms of experimental writing, such as Dada (a movement Rettberg is not afraid of calling the most important artistic movement of the twentieth century—one is, of course, allowed to disagree, but that's another issue) and electronic literature, not only in its most innovative forms but as a specific type of writing in itself. Second, the experimental take on electronic literature as a whole helps the author avoid some of the pitfalls that have hindered much previous thinking, for instance the idea that electronic writing would supersede analog forms of literature (this is clearly not the case, and the clear framing of electronic literature as experimental immediately dissipates such naivetes) or the idea that electronic literature has the same role and impact as the giants that currently dominate the market. Instead, the emphasis on experimentalism, which takes into account the relative weakness of this type of literature in comparison with the corporate use and control of the Internet by giants like Amazon and Google, highlights the critical and cultural value of electronic writing for the future of textuality.

Rettberg's ambition in this book is at once very modest and utterly original. At first sight, it proposes an all-encompassing overview of what has been produced in the field. The past tense is not a detail here, since the light-speed changes of technology, hardware and software alike mean that many works have ceased to be accessible—a crucial issue in electronic writing, already the object of another recent outstanding book, Traversals (by Stuart Moulthrop and Dene Grigar; in comparison, however, the tone of Rettberg's study is much more optimistic). Yet what is important here is not only the exceptional scope of the material covered in this book (I cannot think of an important work of electronic literature that would be missing) but also the singular theoretical approach that is followed to organize, describe and analyze the material.

Rettberg's starting point is amazingly simple, since he proposes a taxonomy that adopts the traditional category of genre. The classification of the complete production along five genre lines (combinatory poetics, hypertext fiction, interactive fiction, kinetic and interactive poetry, and collaborative networked writing for the Internet, eventually complemented with a certain number of practices that blur the boundaries between writing and other practices, such as gallery installations or expanded cinema) is at the same...