Novelist Robert Coover's keynote address at the Electronic Literature in Europe seminar (elitineurope.net), September 13th, 2008. Introduced by Scott Rettberg. Videography by Martin Arvebro.

Credits

6 Likes

  • Scott Rettberg plus 1 year ago
    Coover's talk is a short version of a chapter in the forthcoming Cambridge History of the American Novel. Coover's chapter will be the last in the volume. The editors at Cambridge University Press have graciously granted Coover permissions to allow the recording to circulate freely on the internet on a free, open-access basis.
  •  
  • Cory Salveson 8 months ago
    Coover does a great job situating digitally produced literature in the larger history of writing and narrative. He suggests that the invention of computer-based writing is a moment in the history of narrative-making similar to that of the invention of writing itself in Sumer.

    The first twenty minutes are spent detailing this history, the next twenty, surveying the field now (over the last few years). Coover transitions between these two halves with the assertion (I just love this phrase), "conjure up a new medium, and writers and artists will break in to play with it."

    The talk closes with Coover suggesting that, as it took millennia for cuneiform to deliver Gilgamesh, 150 years for movable type to deliver Don Quixote, and 200 years of American history to deliver the American novel, so it may be a while before we see similar texts in our own newly "conjured" medium. In the mean time, I'll keep my eyes peeled (and my fingers nimble).
  •  
This conversation is missing your voice. Take five seconds to join Vimeo or log in.

Advertisement

1 Related collections

Photos

Statistics

  •  
    plays
    likes
    comments
  • Total
    plays 1,290
    likes 6
    comments 2
  • Dec 9th
    plays 3
    likes 0
    comments 0
  • Dec 8th
    plays 0
    likes 0
    comments 0
  • Dec 7th
    plays 1
    likes 0
    comments 0
  • Dec 6th
    plays 0
    likes 0
    comments 0
  • Dec 5th
    plays 0
    likes 0
    comments 0
  • Dec 4th
    plays 4
    likes 0
    comments 0
  • Dec 3rd
    plays 1
    likes 0
    comments 0
  • Dec 2nd
    plays 1
    likes 0
    comments 0
Previous Week

Downloads

Please join Vimeo or log in to download the original file. It only takes a few seconds.