Electronic Literature in Europe

This paper outlines the practices of teaching digital
literature at the University of Siegen in Germany where
Peter Gendolla and Joergen Schaefer taught courses on
literature in computer-based media for students of both
Literary and Media Studies. This paper thus provides an
historical synopsis of the didactical transformations the
teaching practices have undergone as well as an overview
of the University’s profile and its focus on research and
teaching literary studies. In 2007, the classroom moved
online and held a class transatlantically in cooperation with
Roberto Simanowski (Brown University/Providence, RI,
USA). The online course approached an experimental
Blended Learning concept. The paper introduces the
methodological concept of the class “Digital Aesthetics”
and discusses using Online Communication Systems in
the context of the course of studies: Net Literature.

“Net Literature” or “digital literature” has not yet become a widely
taught subject matter or even a compulsory course in curricula at
German universities. Hence, it is still very much up to an individual’s
research and teaching interest as well as the academic profiles of their
departments lecturers as to whether the relationship between literature
and new media is considered at all.

This paper localizes the methodological approach to teaching Net
Literature via an overview of the Siegen University’s teaching practice
from the 90s to date. The paper further evaluates how the pedagogy of
the subject matter moved into a Blended Learning scenario (virtual and
face-to-face) via an overview of the 2007 Brown University/Siegen
University Blended Learning seminar “Digital Aesthetics”. These two
analyses exemplify the advantages and disadvantages of computer-
supported collaborative learning for Net Literature.

From its very beginnings in the 1970s, literary studies at Siegen
University operated with a particular focus on the media in which
literary texts are being written, distributed, and read. By focusing on
research in media aesthetics and cultural studies, the Siegen
University developed a distinctive profile within the new academic
discipline of Media Studies in the 1980s and 90s. Additionally, the
“German Research Council” (DFG) funded a “Forschungskolleg”
(“Cultural Studies Research Center”) which has been working under
the title “Medienumbrüche” (“Media Upheavals”). This Center
examines the prerequisites and structures of two ‘media upheavals.’
As a subproject from this Center, “Literature on the Net/Net Literature,”
we research the contexts within which literature is discussed,
analyzed, and taught in computer-based and networked media. The
following outline of our pedagogic and didactical approach to the
subject matter of “Net Literature” since the 90s presents an approach
to works of digital literature from a literary studies perspective.

Teaching Net Literature Online

As Net Literature is created through man-machine communication in
programmable media and is usually produced, published, and read
(interacted with) in a virtual environment, teaching Net Literature online
naturally follows. However, it may only appear to be easy to take fully
advantage of the virtual environment with its provided communication
systems. While Information and Communication Technologies for
teaching Net Literature can be applied to virtual environments,
teaching Net Literature entirely online also bears weaknesses that will
be discussed in the paper. These weaknesses are grounded in the
context of the difficulties in Net Literature itself in respect to reception
theory and literary studies.

Instead of teaching Net Literature entirely online, we propose a
Blended Learning scenario as most suitable pedagogic method. The
advantages and strengths in this scenario become apparent as we
evaluate the transatlantic Blended Learning seminar “Digital
Aesthetics” that was held in parallel classes at the Siegen University
and at Brown University in 2007. This course taught Net Literature in
an online, transnational cooperative learning context. We present the
considered methodological approach applied in the Blended Learning
class and discuss the goals of a learning culture that reached out to
turn students into researchers, critics and moderators of discussions
held self-directly in forums as part of the Web 2.0 networking culture.
By elaborating on the payoffs of online communication systems, we
intend to underline the powerful culture of collaborative online
discussion as a revitalizing culture of debates as opposed to a culture
of silence. However, pedagogical methods need to be restructured to
work effectively in an online environment.

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