Summary of presentation by N. Katherine Hayles at Re-Mediating Literature conference at Utrecht University, July 4-6, 2007.

N. Katherine Hayles: “Narrative and Database: Remediating Literature Through Data”

Recently several theorists have proposed that database is replacing narrative as the dominant cultural form, among them Lev Manovich and Ed Folsom. This presentation will argue for that narrative is essential for human communication and culture, but it will also acknowledge that contemporary narratives are transforming through the impact of data. Remediation here implies that the feedback cycle described by Bolter and Grusin in Remediation can also be understood to take place through different cultural forms as well as through different media, where the dynamics are informed not by the hypermediation / transparency dialectic they describe but rather by the circulation through narrative and data.