Abstract
The convergence of electronic media and literary forms during the digital revolution has produced a variety of new hybrid genres which we call today ‘electronic literature’. In Italy, electronic literature has a rich history. It was born in the cultural milieu of the Neoavanguardia in the early 1960s and, since then, it has produced a significant number of experimental works and practices. In this article, I take into consideration the cultural milieu in which it originated and I examine some of the works of the first Italian “electronic” writer, Nanni Balestrini. I will first contextualise Umberto Eco’s <em>Opera aperta</em> in its cultural context, with a special focus on some of the foundational concepts of the “open work” (crisis, interactivity, entropy). In section 3, I argue that <em>Opera aperta</em> does not only coincide with the birth of the first Italian electronic literary work, namely Nanni Balestrini’s <em>Tape Mark I</em>, but it also provides a theoretical and methodological framework to analyse Italian electronic literature across decades from both an aesthetic and critical perspective. In my analysis of some of Balestrini’s key works and collaborations in electronic literature in the following section, I emphasise how formal experimentation and political intention are strictly intertwined and critically address some important questions about our relationship with technologies, such as automation and alienation. Finally, in the conclusion, I highlight the points that make the modern concept of ‘<em>opera aperta</em>’ an effective methodological tool for exploring the ‘open textuality’ of electronic literature and how artists have come to terms with the new forms of expression offered by new media.
Highlights
The convergence of electronic media and literary forms during the digital revolution has produced a variety of hybrid genres which in the present day are often labelled as “electronic
Opera aperta does not mention any work of Italian electronic literature, but there are valid reasons why it should be considered as its foundational theoretical text
This article has demonstrated how Eco’s theory of ‘open text’ establishes the coordinates for understanding electronic literature on different levels. It lays the foundation of formal theory and the practice of ‘open textuality’ that inspired the Italian Neovanguardia and the early electronic literary works by Balestrini
Summary
The convergence of electronic media and literary forms during the digital revolution has produced a variety of hybrid genres which in the present day are often labelled as “electronic. Along with cultural theorists, had to rethink forms of expression and critique in order to respond to this new wave of modernity that brought excitement and creative opportunities and a sense of chaos, as well as the crisis of traditional values and points of reference Within this context, Eco’s Opera aperta reflected on how to reconcile the new forms of expression offered by emerging technologies, the contribution of various new theories (such as cybernetics, systems theory, and pragmatism), and a Marxist worldview. Pragmatism, which considers the knowledge of the world to be inseparable from the agency within the world itself, encouraged the making and interpreting of literature, and other arts, in collaboration with the sciences, as well as physical experimentation in the process of artistic creation Another significant concept discussed in Opera aperta is ‘entropy’, that is, the amount of disorder in communication, as well as in art, and how this relates to intermedia experimentation and collaboration with other agents. Transition, as I discuss . In this case, works remain intentionally open to other agents’ interventions, as, for example, in James Joyce’s Finnegans Wake
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