The dynamic, precarious relationship between technology and imagination, or more broadly, between the sciences and the humanities, is a thrilling crux, offering possibilities scholars and artists of previous generations might have only hoped for in the most abstract way. No longer is technological advancement confined to the laboratory or to the pages of speculative fiction; it is an accepted, expected aspect of modern existence, including contemporary art, performance and literature. From the ways we communicate to the ways we create, technology has become a conduit as well as an inspiration for imaginative innovation. The advent and accessibility of new media, communication outlets and innovative software programs have democratized the creative landscape, building a community of professionals and amateurs who can freely discuss and shape the way literature, art and performance are created and perceived. Just as technology has been liberated from categorical confines, it has helped art and literature be realized as entities that occur in places besides galleries and libraries. Tablets and e-readers, for example, make it possible for literary enthusiasts to read books that are out of print, difficult to find or even self-published by amateur writers, which would have merely been a bibliophile's dream as little as a decade ago. Correspondingly, the essays in this volume examine the intersection of technology and imaginative creation as it applies to and influences modern film, fiction, graphic novels and pedagogical practice. The contributors investigate how technology has indelibly changed the practice of literary and cultural analysis and even the most basic facets of contemporary society: communication, relation and creation.
About the Author: Marie Hendry, along with Jennifer Page, co-chaired the University of Louisiana at Lafayette's Conference on Literature, Language and Culture: Media, Technology and the Imagination, from which this collection is developed. She is also the co-editor of the essay collection Turning Points and Transformations with Christine DeVine. Currently, she is an English doctoral candidate and the editor of thesis and dissertation manuscripts for the Graduate School at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. Jennifer Page is a doctoral candidate and thesis and dissertation editor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, USA, where she is currently drafting her dissertation, Performative Masculinity in Revenge Plays by Kyd, Shakespeare and Middleton. She holds an MA in English, from the same university. She has presented her research on gender and English Renaissance literature at venues such as the Shakespeare Association of America, the South-Central Renaissance Conference, and the Louisiana Consortium of Medieval and Renaissance Scholars. She is a contributor to the upcoming Wiley-Blackwell Encyclopedia of Gender and Sexuality Studies.