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Writing Technology: Cyborgs, Cybernetics, and Translating Machines
Last Updated: 2026-02-05 15:53:27
Abstract
In this course we will examine the two sides of writing technology. On the one hand, we will direct our attention to that most conspicuous writing technology of our world: the digital writing of modern computers.
Objective
On the other hand, we will consider a set of fictional works that imagine the future of technology in writing. More profoundly, however, we will explore the nature and limits of the being who both writes and is written by these technologies, the being we used to call human but which, if we follow the reasoning of Donna Haraway, long ago became an organic-mechanical hybrid—a cyborg.
Content
In this course students will familiarize themselves with ideas central to both the modern study of literature and the historical development of information technologies. Through a mixture of literary and non-literary texts, we will examine notions like “code,” “medium,” and “translation” as concepts, metaphors, and formal practices. Our readings will range from the early work on cybernetics by Norbert Wiener, Alain Turing, and Claude Shannon to texts on media theory by Marshall McLuhan and Friedrich Kittler to classic science fiction novels by Philip K. Dick and Samuel R. Delaney. To give students a sense of the consequences of information theory for literary studies, and to introduce the historical links between communication technology, translation, and Global English, we will compare Edgar Allen Poe’s short story “The Gold Bug” with its translation into BASIC-English, a “universal” language composed of 850 English words selected according to statistical principles. Finally, we will consider the experimental literary form of Samuel Beckett’s Watt, a novel whose prose attains a degree of algorithmic formalization that brings English, as Hugh Kenner once said, “close to the language of digital computers.”
Resources
Literature
Norbert Wiener, The Human Use of Human Beings Alan Turing, Computing Machinery and Intelligence Claude Shannon, “The Mathematical Theory of Communication” Marshall McLuhan, Understanding Media Friedrich Kittler, Literature, Media, Information Systems Donna Haraway, A Cyborg Manifesto Philip K. Dick, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? Samuel R. Delaney, Babel-17 Edgar Allen Poe, “The Gold Bug” / “The Gold Insect” Samuel Beckett, Watt
General Information
- Language
- English
- Levels
- DS
Examination
- Type
- graded semester performance
Course Components
| Type | Title | Time & Place | Hours |
|---|---|---|---|
| lecture | Writing Technology: Cyborgs, Cybernetics, and Translating Machines |
|
2 h weekly |
Offered In
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GESS Science in Perspective (Only the courses listed below will be recognized as "GESS Science in Perspective" courses. Further below you will find courses under the category "Type B courses Reflections about subject specific methods and content" as well as the language courses. During the Bachelor’s degree Students should acquire at least 6 ECTS and during the Master’s degree 2 ECTS. Students who already took a course within their main study program are NOT allowed to take the course again.)
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Type A: Enhancement of Reflection Competence (Suitable for all students. Students who already took a course within their main study program are NOT allowed to take the course again.)
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