Question

At the beginning of this lesson I pointed to the idea that technological advances in communication tools have been part of the impetus to rethink the divisive and hierarchical categorizing of literature and orality, and suggested that this is happening for a number of reasons.  I’d like you to consider two aspects of digital literature: 1) social media tools that enable widespread publication, without publishers, and 2) Hypertext, which is the name for the text that lies beyond the text you are reading, until you click. How do you think these capabilities might be impacting literature and story?

In answering this question, I would like to highlight the efficiency of distributing literature and story through social media and the aid in which hypertext poses for readers. For my own organization and sanity I am dividing my response into two parts to discuss the two aspects of this question.

Part 1: Social Media

Publishing content on the www is as simple to do as it is for the audience to read. Through the social media source Facebook, account holders are able to publish their own stories for their friends to read and they can also share with their friends almost any page on the www through their Facebook profile. Among many other things, this enables Facebook users to share articles they enjoyed reading or recommend books they have read to their friends making the www highly efficient in distributing literature.

The example I thought of almost immediately when thinking about the impact of social media on literature actually comes from Facebook. I have two aunties that live in Toronto and are Canadian authors, Kelly Robson and Alyx Dellamonica. I have them on Facebook and through what they share on their profiles I have been introduced to an extensive amount of literature that I would have otherwise never known about. Being that they are authors, they are immersed in the field of literature leading them to have many Facebook friends who are also authors. Generally how I learn about new Canadian authors and texts on Facebook goes like this: One of their facebook friends will share a link on their timeline regarding a book that they had recently written or read, this link then gets shared by Kelly and/or Alyx to all of their Facebook friends which distribute’s this text to thousands of people including myself.

The www makes it so incredibly easy to access Canadian literature and interact with authors as you can find full texts published online with a comment function at the bottom of the page. This comment function enables the reader on the www to become the listener of stories as well as a writer. They are given the opportunity to write about their experience with the text and give their opinions and interpretations of it. This creates an interaction with the author as they are able to receive feedback from their readers. The author is able to ‘listen’ to the comments left by other readers around the world and interact with their analysis.  Being that readers on the www can also be writers and listeners, the blur between literacy and orality discussed in Lesson 1.2 is created.

Part 2: Hypertext 

I think hypertext is a phenomenal function as it gives you immediate access to further information regarding any topic that is being discussed. As I have exemplified in this blog post, hypertext gives readers an opportunity to be directed to a new webpage that can a) help them to gain a greater understanding of the topic being discussed b) provide web pages as examples of particular topics. In terms of the impact hypertext has upon literature and story, it enables readers to be more involved with the text as they are given the tools to broaden their understanding.

Thanks for reading! 🙂

Hello there and welcome to my blog!

First order of business, I would like to introduce myself! My name is Caitlyn Robson and I am a 4th year BA student with a combined major in Art History, Visual Culture and English. This is one of my last classes at UBCO before I graduate in May and I am pleased to be focusing on Canadian literature in my final semester. After I graduate from UBCO I will be going back to Alberta to live with my family and work while I wait to hear back from UVic, UofC, and SFX regarding acceptance into the Elementary Education programs they offer. Throughout my journey over the past four years, I have taken many English classes jumping through various genres and eras. However, the only Canadian literature class I have ever taken was when I was in my second year of college prior to coming to UBCO. I find Canadian literature extremely important and thoroughly enjoying! Reading material derived from the beautiful country I was born and raised in is really rewarding and informative.

After reading the syllabus and viewing the introductory vlog I have understood English 470A to be “a scholarly study of Canadian literature in a historical context with a focus on the intersections and departures between European and Indigenous traditions of literature and orature” (Paterson). We will be studying and examining the power and logistics of storytelling within Canada. Through reading various literary texts and articles, students enrolled in this course will understand which stories are heard, which are not and why.

The syllabus Course Description for this class reminded me of two TED Talks I recently watched on youtube regarding the power of storytelling. The first one is Chimanda Ngozi Adichie’s TED Talk  “The Danger of a Single Story”. In this, Adichie explains that cultures are composed of many stories and that if a person is only exposed to one single story about a particular culture or individual, their idea of this culture or individual can be extremely misconstrued.  I thought it was an informative and relevant video, so if you have time, check it out!

The second TED Talk I recently watched is given by Christ Turner entitled “Why Canadian history isn’t as boring as you think”. In this talk, he explains that Canadians have always understood their historical tale to be a nice but boring and discusses the how this stereotype came to be engrained through storytelling. Again, you should probably watch this as it is actually extremely interesting and I believe to be relevant to this class.

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoyed the TED Talks and thank you for visiting my blog! I look forward reading all of yours and working with you all this semester.

Cait 🙂