George Landow (professor)

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George Paul Landow (25 August 1940 – 31 May 2023) was Professor of English and Art History Emeritus at Brown University. He was a leading authority on Victorian literature, art, and culture, as well as a pioneer in criticism and theory of Electronic literature, hypertext and hypermedia. He also pioneered the use of hypertext and the web in higher education.

Work[edit]

George Landow published extensively on John Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, specifically the life and works of William Holman Hunt.

Landow was also a leading theorist of hypertext,[1] of the effects of digital technology on language, and of electronic media on literature. While his early work on hypertext sought to establish design rules for efficient hypertext communication,[2] he is especially noted for his book Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Literary Theory and Technology, first published in 1992, which is considered a "landmark"[3] in the academic study of electronic writing systems,[4] and states the view that the interpretive agenda of post-structuralist literary theory anticipated the essential characteristics of hypertext.[3]

In Hypertext Landow draws on theorists such as Jacques Derrida, Roland Barthes, Gilles Deleuze, Paul de Man, and Michel Foucault, among others,[1] and argues, especially, that hypertext embodies the textual openness championed by post-structuralist theory and that hypertext enables people to develop knowledge in a non-linear, non-sequential, associative way that linear texts do not.[5] Though he was a consistent proponent of visual overviews and navigational maps, he long argued that hypertext navigation is not a problem—that hypertexts are not more difficult to understand than linear texts.[6]

Landow also pioneered the use of the web in higher education with projects such as The Victorian Web, The Contemporary, Postcolonial, & Postimperial Literature in English web[1], and The Cyberspace, Hypertext, & Critical Theory web[2].[7] J. Yellowlees Douglas recognizes Landow's early hypertext works like the Dickens Web and Landow and John Lanestedt's The "In Memoriam" in The End of Books or Books without End?[8]

Select works[edit]

  • Hypertext 3.0 : Critical Theory and New Media in an Era of Globalization. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. ISBN 0801882567
  • Hypertext 2.0. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997. ISBN 0801855853
  • Hypertext : The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992. ISBN 0801842808
  • Hyper/Text/Theory, 1994
  • Hypermedia and Literary Studies, 1994 (with Paul Delany)
  • The Digital Word: Text-Based Computing in the Humanities, 1993 (with Paul Delany)
  • Elegant Jeremiahs: The Sage from Carlyle to Mailer, 1986
  • A Pre-Raphaelite Friendship: The Correspondence of William Holman Hunt and John Lucas Tupper, 1986
  • Ladies of Shalott: A Victorian Masterpiece and Its Contexts, 1985
  • Images of Crisis: Literary Iconology, 1750 to the Present, 1982
  • Victorian Types, Victorian Shadows; Biblical Typology in Victorian Literature, Art, and Thought, 1980
  • Approaches to Victorian Autobiography, 1979
  • William Holman Hunt and Typological Symbolism, 1979
  • The Aesthetic and Critical Theories of John Ruskin, 1972

Honors[edit]

  • Fulbright in Information Technology, Croatia, June 2011.
  • Distinguished Visiting Professor, National University of Singapore, August 1998 - March 1999.
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for College Teachers at Illinois State University (Project Director: Roger Tarr), 1998.
  • Visiting Professor, University of Zimbabwe, August 1997.
  • ACC Distinguished Lecturer in Computer Science, University of South Alabama, 1997.
  • Visiting Research Fellow in Electronics and Computer Science, University of Southampton, 1995.
  • British Academy Visiting Professor, Bowland College, University of Lancaster, 1994.
  • Mellon Foundation Fresh Combinations Grant for a course in hypertext and literary theory, 1991-1992
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for College Teachers at Yale University (Project Director: Duncan Robinson), 1991.
  • EDUCOM/ENCRIPTAL Higher Education Software Award, Best Curriculum Innovation - Humanities, from National Center for Research to Improve Postsecondary Teaching and Learning, 1990.
  • Faculty Fellow, Institute for Research in Information and Scholarship, 1989-1994
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Institute for College Teachers at Yale University (Project Director: Duncan Robinson), 1988.
  • Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting Planning Grant, for The Continents of Knowledge, 1988.
  • Annenberg/Corporation for Public Broadcasting Grant to develop educational software and course materials for the humanities, 1985–1987.
  • National Endowment for the Arts Grant for Ladies of Shalott, 1984–1985. (Project Director)
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend, 1984.
  • Guggenheim Fellow, 1978
  • Visiting Fellow, Brasenose College, Oxford, 1977
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Project Development Grant, 1976.
  • Phi Beta Kappa, 1974
  • Guggenheim Fellow, 1973
  • Gustave O. Arldt Award, Council of Graduate Schools in the United States, for a book in the humanities (for The Aesthetic and Critical Theories of John Ruskin), 1972
  • Master of Arts Degree, Ad Eundum, Brown University, 1972
  • Visiting Associate Professor, University of Chicago, 1970-1971
  • Chamberlain Fellow, Columbia University, Summer 1969
  • Fellow of the Society for the Humanities, Cornell University, 1968-1969
  • Research Grant, Council on the Humanities, Columbia University, Summer 1968
  • Fulbright Scholar, Birkbeck College, University of London, 1964-1965
  • Class of 1873 Fellow in English Letters, Princeton University, 1962-1964
  • Woodrow Wilson Fellow, Brandeis University, 1961-1962[9]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b Goody, Alex (2011). Technology, Literature and Culture. Cambridge: Polity. p. 123. ISBN 9780745639536.
  2. ^ Aarseth, Espen J. (1997). Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 90. ISBN 0801855780.
  3. ^ a b Hayles, N. Katherine (2007-01-02). "Electronic Literature: What is it?". The Electronic Literature Organization. Retrieved 2013-01-03.
  4. ^ "George P. Landow". Eastgate. 2003. Retrieved January 3, 2013.
  5. ^ White, Andy (2007). "Understanding hypertext cognition: Developing mental models to aid users' comprehension". First Monday. 12 (1). Retrieved 2012-12-30.
  6. ^ Mandl, Heinz (1990). Designing Hypertext/Hypermedia for Learning. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag.
  7. ^ Bolter, J. David (2000). Writing Space: Computers, Hypertext, and the Remediation of Print (2nd ed.). Mahwah, N.J: Erlbaum. pp. 116–117. ISBN 0805829199.
  8. ^ Douglas, J. Yellowlees (2000). The end of books or books without end ? reading interactive narratives. Ann Arbor (Mich.: University of Michigan press. p. ). ISBN 978-0-472-11114-5.
  9. ^ Landow, George. "George P. Landow: Fellowships and Honors". The Victorian Web. Retrieved 14 September 2016.

External links[edit]

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