Call for book chapters:

E-literature is defined as literature that is born digital, that is to say, that which cannot be replicated on paper or print. These are works that have to be both produced and experienced digitally. As Katherine Hayles explains, ‘electronic texts remain distinct from print in that it literally cannot be accessed until it is performed by properly executed code.’ It is this combination of coding and aesthetics that becomes the core of e-literature. Both e-literature and digital games involve complex and multimedial story telling. They represent literature with augmented experiences, interactive features and other aspects not available in the print form. Both these forms have challenged the traditional modes of narratives and narration and created newer forms of engagement. 

Development of technology has equipped us with various tools and endowed human creativity with diverse means of expression. Recent interventions in AI have added several dimensions to the idea of expression and performances. Not confined within the two dimensions of paper, electronic literature and digital games provide an alternative world of experience that still has a lot to be explored. 

In spite of the stigma associated with the digital world, be it games or literature, it is significant to remember that they too mirror contemporary society. The stigma stems more from lack of awareness than from active engagement. The digital world not just represents the profound impact that technology has on human lives, it also democratizes voices and opens up newer avenues of representation.

Like every other genre, there are challenges here too. Technology keeps evolving and that makes the fields of e-lit and digital games in a state of flux. While technological development leads to augmented experiences, it also leads to a fear of redundancy. These forms exist in a negotiation of the past, present future of technology that determine its accessibility to a large extent. 

Keeping all this in mind, the proposed volume of critical essays seeks papers on  issues related to and beyond the following: 

1. Digital literature and games as literary voices

2. Socio-cultural contexts in the digital world

3. Posthumanist narratives 

4. Historicity of the digital 

5. Interactions, negotiations and agencies in the digital texts

6. Pedagogy of digital games and literature 

7. Indian narratives in the digital world

8. Archiving and reclaiming the digital, issues of redundancy and obsoletion 

Editors - Dr Sarottama Majumdar and Dr Nabanita Sengupta