An examination of three major works by Katherine Hayles: How We Became Posthuman: Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature and Informatics (1999); Writing Machines (2002); and My Mother was a Computer: Digital Subjects and Literary Texts (2005). These deal mainly with the materiality of reader/writer/text; formations of identity and subjectivity in the digital age; and with the history of Information theory as it relates to epistemologies of the posthuman. I argue that the key terms: materiality, subjectivity, and epistemology, found in these books, are crucial to understanding the digital revolution, and that Katherine Hayles' work is invaluable to 21st century Composition studies, as we seek to orient ourselves in the landscape of electronically mediated discourse. To illustrate this I apply these terms as a critical lens to different instantiations of a refereed journal: Computers and Composition (print; Volume 23.1: March 2006)) and Computers and Composition Online (Spring 2006) and show where Hayles' ideas appear or do not appear across these platforms. I look at the contrast between in these examples of discourse about, and with computer mediated forms. I conclude that Katherine Hayles gives us new ways of seeing these key terms, and that they can be used to understand and explore the digitally networked territories that Composition studies will inhabit in the 21st century, also called the era of the "posthuman." / A Thesis Submitted to the Department of English in Partial Fulfillment of Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts. / Fall Semester, 2008. / November 3, 2008. / Digital Materiality, Subjectivity, Post, Epistemology / Includes bibliographical references. / Kathleen Yancey, Professor Directing Thesis; Kristie Fleckenstein, Committee Member; Douglas Fowler, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_176185 |
| Contributors | Skinner, Rebecca Furlow (authoraut), Yancey, Kathleen (professor directing thesis), Fleckenstein, Kristie (committee member), Fowler, Douglas (committee member), Department of English (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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