Emma Woodrow

May 2003

Aims and Objectives

Primary Sources

Literature Review

Proposed method of study

Arguments

Reason for study

Glossary

Works Cited

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Aims and Objectives

The dissertation project 'The Digital 'I' - Gender and Identity in a Post Literate Society' will use digital technology to create the investigations of the question: 'How does the construction of identity, especially gender identity, differ between linear texts and hyper text fictions?'

By using a non-linear approach for this dissertation project it is hoped that it will be possible to explore arguments which exist on different intersecting planes, thus creating a postmodern dissertation.

Critical theory encourages one to consider the different ways a text may be perceived and the relationship of the reader to the text, resulting in the possibility of many interpretations of a linear text - the 'death of the Author'. This investigation leads to a number of questions. One consideration is whether a non-linear format offers additional ways of constructing identity or is the construction of identity less developed in linear texts.

Gender is socially constructed and the reader constructs gender and associated traits and behaviours (such as aggression) through the text. To what extent is the reader's interpretation based on stereotyping? What textual clues exist? Gender identity appears to be constructed from polar opposites which are common in literature. Such dualism is seen by some to be socially constructed, a consequence of patriarchy (1).

A fundamental point here is that technology may have become more influential than culture in the development of a text. It is possible that contemporary fiction explores the ideas of current critical theory because technology exists that allows for many readings. The qualities of non-linear texts may be created by the technology which makes nonlinear text possible. One area of consideration will be how development of hypertext affects gender construction in hypertext fiction.