Literature and the Internet

Book excerpt: Literature and the Internet: A Guide for Students, Teachers, and Scholars is the only Internet guide written for those who love and study literature. The book begins with a practical introduction for readers who want help finding, navigating, and using literary sites. Later chapters focus on educational issues such as plagiarism, citation, website evaluation, the use of Internet sites in literature courses, as well as the technical, scholarly and professional issues raised by the advent of the Internet. Finally, the book concludes with a chapter on the cultural implications of the Internet for literary studies. In addition, the book offers an annotated bibliography of Internet sources (with URLs) that introduces readers to hundreds of sites which they can explore on their own. Readers need not have a B.A. or even a major in English, and no special training in computer technology and software is necessary. The book explains both the basics of the Internet and sophisticated scholarly issues in simple language. Ultimately, each Internet user must choose his or her own path through the Internet, but with Literature and the Internet in hand, surfing the net for things literary will be more efficient and satisfying and much less confusing and overwhelming.