The Literary History Of Virtual Reality

In this course, we will trace a history of virtual reality before the computer, drawing on non-digital texts and artworks from the early nineteenth century onwards, and their evocation of virtual experience or immersive effects. By doing so, we will form individual definitions of virtual reality and discuss its past, present, and future role in our culture. Each week we will examine one or more case studies, organised broadly into three literary genres or periods bearing different contextual relationships to representation and reality: the Romantic poem and essay, the realist novel, and postmodern narrative.

In each case study, we will (1) evaluate whether the literary work meets our or other definitions of virtual reality, (2) analyse how the work generates its particular immersive effects, and (3) discuss the significance of immersive experience both to the work's specific aims and contexts, and to our modern understandings of virtuality.