Through a series of original analyses of experimental works that exist well outside of the established territory inhabited by the Italian literary canon, or which purposely position themselves at its margins, this volume proposes a new way to understand the goals of literary experimentation as a means to break the canon and give literature the same freedom that is easily granted to other arts. This serves to allow literature itself to intersect with those other art forms, while enhancing the powerful and positive outcomes of literary experimentation. Specifically, the volume explores a series of 20th- and 21st-century Italian works that are characterized by a non-normative approach to language or the act of writing itself. The contributors, while addressing diverse writers, and often even adopting different theoretical interpretations of experimentalism itself, all analyze the intersection between experimental literatures and other art forms, as well as cross-disciplinary and non-traditional approaches to the theme of experimentation.

Through a series of original analyses of experimental works that exist well outside of the established territory inhabited by the Italian literary canon, or which purposely position themselves at its margins, this volume proposes a new way to understand the goals of literary experimentation as a means to break the canon and give literature the same freedom that is easily granted to other arts. This serves to allow literature itself to intersect with those other art forms, while enhancing the powerful and positive outcomes of literary experimentation. Specifically, the volume explores a series of 20th- and 21st-century Italian works that are characterized by a non-normative approach to language or the act of writing itself. The contributors, while addressing diverse writers, and often even adopting different theoretical interpretations of experimentalism itself, all analyze the intersection between experimental literatures and other art forms, as well as cross-disciplinary and non-traditional approaches to the theme of experimentation.

What is experimental literature? How has experimentation affected the course of literary history, and how is it shaping literary expression today? Literary experiment has always been diverse and challenging, but never more so than in our age of digital media and social networking, when the very category of the literary is coming under intense pressure. How will literature reconfigure itself in the future? The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature maps this expansive and multifaceted field, with essays on: the history of literary experiment from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present the impact of new media on literature, including multimodal literature, digital fiction and code poetry the development of experimental genres from graphic narratives and found poetry through to gaming and interactive fiction experimental movements from Futurism and Surrealism to Postmodernism, Avant-Pop and Flarf. Shedding new light on often critically neglected terrain, the contributors introduce this vibrant area, define its current state, and offer exciting new perspectives on its future. This volume is the ideal introduction for those approaching the study of experimental literature for the first time or looking to further their knowledge.

Architectural research is being redefined in practice. Whereas once the value of a piece of research was solely measured by the number of citations it received by fellow academics, shifting funding models and new societal concerns are forcing academia to question its structure and this mode of evaluation. At the same time a wave of practitioners and new types of institutions, such as RMIT in Melbourne and the London School of Architecture (LSA), have been recasting architectural education and theoretical speculation within practice, turning the traditional architectural studio into a learning environment that adopts and adapts academic models, and starts to use architectural research as a potential source of business intelligence, as a means for self-generating future commissions and speculative opportunities that sometimes even shift the terrain of practice. This new focus on research in practice is indicative of a profession redefining its relevance and scope. This is destabilising the traditional roles of academia and practice by questioning their deep-rooted separation and demanding a new definition of the term ‘research’ with one that is relevant to both parties. This issue features contributions from architectural thinkers, researchers and a number of practitioners who are recasting academic speculation within their own studios. This not only redefines what is meant by research and what forms it takes, but also how it creates value for them, their clients, for the discipline as a whole and for the ultimate users of their designs. This helps us to understand how research might be deemed valuable beyond a purely academic context. Moreover, it raises significant questions in terms of opportunities and risks that arise when research is recast into the less regimented realm of practice. Contributors: Daniel Davis, Lionel Devlieger, David Green, Harriet Harris, Rory Hyde, Lara Kinneir, James Soane, Ziona Strelitz, Leon van Schaik, John Zhang Featured architects: Assemble, DSDHA, Foster + Partners, Iredale Pedersen Hook, OMA, Public Practice and Superflux.

A recent surge of interest in network approaches to the study of the ancient world has enabled scholars of the Roman Empire to move beyond traditional narratives of domination, resistance, integration and fragmentation. This relational turn has not only offers tools to identify, map, visualize and, in some cases, even quantify interaction based on a variety of ancient source material, but also provides a terminology to deal with the everyday ties of power, trade, and ideology that operated within, below, and beyond the superstructure of imperial rule. Thirteen contributions employ a range of quantitative, qualitative and descriptive network approaches in order to provide new perspectives on trade, communication, administration, technology, religion and municipal life in the Roman Near East and adjacent regions.

Explores the challenges and significance of experimental writing Offers a forum for reflecting on the significance of avant-garde writing for the twenty-first century Explores the way in which contemporary experimental writers engage with socio-political issues Utilizes unpublished archive materials bringing to light a number of previously unpublished worksIncludes innovative readings of significant avant-garde writers previously neglected in the critical canonBringing together internationally leading scholars whose work engages with the continued importance of literary experiment, this book takes up the question of 'reading' in the contemporary climate from culturally and linguistically diverse perspectives. New reading practices are both offered and traced in avant-garde writers across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including John Cage, Kathy Acker, Charles Bernstein, Erica Hunt, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Rosmarie Waldrop, Joan Retallack, M. NourbeSe Philip, Caroline Bergvall, Uljana Wolf, Samantha Gorman and Dave Jhave Johnston, among others. Exploring the socio-political significance of literary experiment, the book yields new critical approaches to reading avant-garde writing.