Pre-web digital publishing and the lore of electronic literature / Astrid Ensslin.

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2022.

1 online resource (134 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

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Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 21 Mar 2022).

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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.

Cambridge core frontlist 2022.

Print version:

Books / Online

English

April 27, 2022

Electronic publishing > United States > History.