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Triangulate: Literature and the Sciences Mediated by Computing Machines

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The Palgrave Handbook of Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature and Science

Part of the book series: Palgrave Handbooks of Literature and Science ((PAHALISC))

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Abstract

The emergence of electronic computing machines since the 1950s upsets the traditional boundaries between literature and the sciences by making writing fully machinic and by making knowing inescapably embodied. The new triangulation of literature, science, and computing machines may be a unique (desperate?) opportunity for literary studies to reposition themselves as something more than the caretakers of (defunct) traditions. In its exploration of this triangulation, this article questions the notions of “information,” “relevance,” and “meaning.” It explores how (human) “gestures” necessarily complement (machinic) “programs,” in the sciences as much as in literature. It attempts to understand what makes human attention irreducible to computational attention. Literary investigations and experimentations with meaning appear more vital than ever, once they are re-triangulated between the sciences and computing machines.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Université Paris 8 & EUR ArTeC, Saint-Denis, France

    Yves Citton

Authors
  1. Yves Citton
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA

    Neel Ahuja

  2. University of Wisconsin–Madison, Madison, WI, USA

    Monique Allewaert

  3. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Lindsey Andrews

  4. Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Gerry Canavan

  5. Southwestern University, Georgetown, TX, USA

    Rebecca Evans

  6. Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    Nihad M. Farooq

  7. University at Albany, State University of New York, Albany, NY, USA

    Erica Fretwell

  8. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Nicholas Gaskill

  9. University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

    Patrick Jagoda

  10. Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA

    Erin Gentry Lamb

  11. Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA

    Jennifer Rhee

  12. University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, USA

    Britt Rusert

  13. University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Matthew A. Taylor

  14. Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Aarthi Vadde

  15. Duke University, Durham, NC, USA

    Priscilla Wald

  16. North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Rebecca Walsh

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Citton, Y. (2020). Triangulate: Literature and the Sciences Mediated by Computing Machines. In: Ahuja, N., et al. The Palgrave Handbook of Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literature and Science. Palgrave Handbooks of Literature and Science. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-48244-2_6

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