Module overview
Long before the advent of Artificial Intelligence, the practice of writing was already technological, shaped by tools, systems, and media. This module explores how technology is not only a theme within, but also an unavoidable condition of what we call ‘writing’. From inscriptions rendered as flat durable marks of print to the diverse sensory modalities of the immersive internet, from short bursts of signal produced by a telegrapher to the ethereal infrastructures of the modern social web, from reference dictionaries and thesauri to powerful computers crunching linguistic data at superhuman scales, literature has always been subject to technological change and rupture.
The module combines critical reading with creative practice. Students will read writing about technology, while understanding writing as a type of technology in itself. They will see how technological objects like radio, telescreens, and surveillance cameras alter not only the form of literary texts, but also their modes of consumption. They will undertake weekly writing experiments that place them in direct contact with technological limits and affordances—in a room with a quill, over a typewriter, in front of a mainframe computer, or an 80s word processor, for example. These experiments may involve writing under constraint, composing for specific platforms or interfaces, working with automated or procedural methods, or deliberately engaging with breakdown, repetition, and obsolescence.
A central aim of the module is to challenge the assumption that writing tools are neutral. Students will reflect on how pens, keyboards, screens, software, and platforms actively influence the writing process, shaping pace, style, structure, and even content—yet they will be encouraged to ask at what point the writer begins and ends. By becoming attentive to these factors, students will develop a more self-aware and theoretically informed practice in literary composition.