Call for Papers for an Edited Book 'Virtual Reality Literature' (With interest from Routledge)

deadline for submissions: 
October 15, 2024
full name / name of organization: 
Ratul Nandi and Anik Sarkar

 

 

Call for Papers for an Edited Book

Virtual Reality Literature

Ratul Nandi and Anik Sarkar

A discernible surge in the realm of virtual reality is imminent within the global trajectory. While the realization of long-held Science Fictional imaginaries is undoubtedly intriguing, it’s vital to approach these transformations with critical worldviews, investigating the implications and consequences of our constructed realities as they embark on new experiential paradigms. Virtual Reality may encode, enhance, and reconstruct real-life experiences, unveiling new avenues for exploration, meanwhile raising concerns about privacy, manipulation, and the obscuring of boundaries between reality and simulation. Pimentel and Texeira’s definition of Virtual Reality states that the phenomena refers to an immersive, interactive experience generated by computers.[1] Marie-Laure Ryan contends that, while the phrase “computer generated” refers to the digital nature of the information, the terms “immersive” and “interactive” describe what characteristics make the computer-mediated experience similar to reality. For Ryan, to perceive a universe as real, one must feel encircled by it, interact with it physically, and have the ability to change its aspects.[2] According to Steuer, the combination of immersion and interactivity creates a phenomena known as telepresence, in which a virtual world instills a sensation of presence similar to reality. As a result, telepresence reflects presence in the same way that virtual reality does. Ryan undertakes a comparative analysis that aims to foster a critical examination of interactivity within literary theory by exploring the immersive aspects of both literature and VR technology, seeking to revitalize the experience of immersion and deepen understanding of the expressive capacities inherent in the supporting medium of literature. She proposes the transfer of “immersion and interactivity from the technological to the literary domain and to develop them into the cornerstones of a phenomenology of reading, or, more broadly, of experiencing art.”[3] In that manner, she explores both classical literary works and emerging genres enabled by the digital advancements of the last twenty years, including hypertext, contemporary electronic literature, video games, interactive dramas, and electronic installations.

Likewise, many facets of VR have started to feature in contemporary literary texts. Novels such as Snow Crash, Ready Player One, Three-Body Problem, Neuromancer have meticulously examined the convergence and interconnectivity of VR with tangible reality, envisioning cyberpunk futures that extrapolate potential world-orders imbued with diverse “possibilities”. Virtual Reality Literature as Ernest Cline’s Ready Player One and Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash provides instructive reflections on modern issues pertaining to society. In these immersive narratives, virtual worlds such as the OASIS and the Metaverse serve as parallels to the real world, revealing and intentionally exaggerating economic inequities, corporate control, and the campaign for human autonomy. These novels’ treatment of these tropes prompts critical reconsiderations on the ethical and political implications of technology, pushing readers to evaluate the consequences of unfettered technological growth on the environment, mass surveillance, social justice, and personal liberty.      

In this volume we are interested in exploring how such texts have responded to the gamification and virtualization of reality. Similarly, the project seeks inquisition on how the different facets of VR literature have represented the changing dynamics of the socio-political order. Do literary texts that do not directly engage with VR also provoke us on similar fronts? Is it conceivable for us to identify, analyze, and conceptualize an emergent sub-genre of narratives termed “VR Literature”?

Some areas that the chapters can explore, but not limited to: 

VR and Dystopian Imaginings

Narration and Immersion

Virtual Worlds in Literary Texts

Theorizing Virtual Reality as Literature

VR, Literature, and the futures of immersive reading

Gender and VR Literature

Hard SF and VR

Ecocriticism and VR Literature

VR Literature and Multimodality

VR Literature and Critical Theory

VR Literature and Capitalist Economy

VR Literature and Lucid Dreams

VR Literature and Film Adaptations

VR Literature, Transmedia and Video games

VR, Graphic Novels and Comics

 

Routledge is interested in publishing this volume.

Abstracts within 500 words, along with a short bio-note within 300 words, are to be submitted by 15 October 2024. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by 7 Novemberber 2024, and complete essays are expected within 30 March 2025.

Email for contact: vrliterature24@gmail.com

Editors: Ratul Nandi and Anik Sarkar, University of North Bengal




[1] Pimentel, Ken, and Kevin Texeira. Virtual Reality: Through the New Looking-Glass. Intel/Windcrest McGraw Hill, 1993.

[2] Immersion vs. Interactivity: Virtual Reality and Literary Theory, Marie-Laure Ryan, 1999

[3] Narrative as Virtual Reality, Marie-Laure Ryan, 2001 (pg. 2)