Sobre literatura eletrônica e algumas questões de materialidade e autoria : Fantasia Breve, a Palavra-Espuma, de Rui Torres

Abstract

In cyberliterature, practices that sometimes transgress traditional notions of materiality and authorship from printed literature gain space, such as the poem generated by software Fantasia Breve, a Palavra-Espuma, by Rui Torres, in which the text runs uninterrupted and then disappears, being different on each access to the Web page. In a way to consider its transitory nature, the present research begins with a contextualization of this work, in which it briefly presents the field of electronic literature and some concepts, then it approaches digital computers as a means for cyberliterature and its influence on practices of reading and writing, evidenced in some genres of e-lit, such as autogenerative literature, with text generated by the machine, to then describe the performance of Torres' digital poem and its production. Afterwards, the research turns to issues of materiality and authorship that involve digital practices such as this poem. Materiality is discussed in the sense of the existence of digital works being threatened by the accelerated obsolescence of machines and also in the sense of poetics of a dematerial, ephemeral nature. Then, it deals with the issues of authorship in e-lit, specifying the production of the poem idealized by Torres, with combinatorial textual generation performed by software programmed by Nuno Ferreira and a database based on the writings of the experimental poet Ana Hatherly. Regarding combinatorial writing practices, the research points out that they preceded the digital context, being extrapolated in it. Thereafter, the research reflects on the connections between Nuno, Hatherly and Torres, while it deals with artistic production through code programming and focuses on a kind of metapoetic remix of Hatherly in Torres' work, considering her theoretical research and poetic practices and, thereby, it demonstrates the possibilities of creation present in the digital context, often not yet known and/or recognized by readers and critics.