Université du Québec à Montréal Département d'Études littéraires UQAM C.P. 8888, succ. Centre-ville Montréal, Québec H3C 3P8 gervais.bertrand@uqam.ca http://www.litterature.uqam.ca/ Abstract: The aim of this presentation will be to offer an overview of the research at the core of the NT2 Lab; the Montreal based Research Laboratory on New Norms of Texts and Fictions (NT2 stands for "New technologies, New Textualities"). In the same fashion as the Electronic Literature Organization (ELO), the NT2 goals are to "facilitate and promote the writing, the reading, the studying and the archiving of new forms of texts, literature and art, especially in electronic media (in a French environment)." Three major fields of research are proposed: experimentation (which includes producing new forms of texts and fiction; promoting theses new forms; and preserving them); research on hypertextuality and hypermedia per se (focusing on the reading practices required by these new formats and forms; as well as on the relationship between narration and interactivity; texts and images; reading and gaming; the screen and the page; etc.); and research on the new landscape of the Imaginary and Culture. The focus is on the computer not as a tool but as a media, a mode of representation. Bio: Bertrand Gervais is full professor in the Department of Literary studies at the University of Québec in Montréal. He is the director of Figura, the Research Center on Textuality and the Imaginary, and of the NT2 Lab, which studies new forms of texts and fictions. He teaches American literature and literary theories, specializing in theories of reading and interpretation. He has published essays on literary reading and twentieth century American literature (Barthelme, Hawkes, DeLillo, Oates, etc.). His current work focuses on the apocalyptic imagination, on the Labyrinth in contemporary literature and on violence, obsessions and l'oubli. He is also a novelist. |