The Future of Literature?

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The question of ‘what is literature?’ is an ancient one, which has been posed time and again, since the onset of Western civilization. Plato tackled the issue in the third book of The Republic, while Aristotle gave the subject extensive and systematic treatment in his Poetics, a treatise which remained authoritative well into the eighteenth century. The question has been addressed within ever changing social circumstances and media ecologies ever since. Literature as we know it today took on shape with the invention of print. Now that we have so many other media at our disposal besides the printed book, the question of ‘what is literature?’ returns to us with renewed urgency. In our contemporary multimedia culture, we may listen to a radio broadcast, watch a TV-series, go to a movie, play a digital game, surf the internet, read a hypertext, listen to a cd-rom, don a headset and scarf and move around in virtual reality, etc. What could be the place and function of literature within the context of this ever expanding multimedia landscape? As it is impossible to develop a perspective on the place and function of literature in the contemporary multimedia-landscape without a thorough knowledge of the functions and values traditionally accorded to literature, the major part of this course has been geared towards equipping you with these indispensable insights. Thus, the course provides a historical overview of the functions of literature, while engaging you in considering what place there is for these fucntions in the new media ecology.