Poetic Inventory: Notes on the Remains of the Human in Literature

Abstract This essay aims to analyse the electronic fiction text created by Richard Holeton - Frequently Asked Questions About "Hypertext" -, published by N. Katherine Hayles in the Electronic Literature Collection (vol. 1, 2006). As an ironic reference to another parodistic work created by Vladimir Nabokov: Pale Fire (1962), this text provides a rich material for a “posthumanist” reading about the future of poetry as an expression of the human soul. Contrary to what the title suggests, however, Holeton’s text is not presented as an academic essay on digital writing, but as an experimental poem subjected to the quaint approaches of several fictitious critics, practitioners of the analytical lines of the nowadays popular Cultural Studies. The text allows us a humorous reflection on the perturbing directions of reading, writing and the production of knowledge in contemporary world.

摘要 本文旨在分析理查德·霍尔顿（Richard Holeton）创作的电子小说文本《"超文本"常见问题解答》（Frequently Asked Questions About "Hypertext"），该文本由N·凯瑟琳·海莱斯（N. Katherine Hayles）收录于《电子文学作品集》（Electronic Literature Collection）第1卷（2006年版）。该文本以弗拉基米尔·纳博科夫（Vladimir Nabokov）1962年的戏仿作品《微暗的火》（Pale Fire）为反讽参照，为从"后人文主义（posthumanist）"视角探讨"诗歌作为人类灵魂表达之未来"提供了丰富研究素材。然而与标题所暗示的内容相悖，霍尔顿的文本并非一篇关于数字写作的学术论文，而是一部实验性诗歌作品，采用了数位虚构评论家的古怪研究路径——这些评论家是当下流行的文化研究（Cultural Studies）分析范式的践行者。该文本可引导读者以幽默笔触反思当代世界中阅读、写作与知识生产的令人不安的发展走向。