www.timeandglobalization.com/narrative

Speculation about time and globalization at the millennium tends to announc e either endings or beginnings. The difficulty in analyzing time and global ization lies in recognizing that we live in a period of overlapping, often conflicting times, processes, rates of change, and speeds of life. This art icle attempts to demonstrate how print and electronic media interpenetrate in a transitional period by analyzing them in terms of one another. The sho rtening and 'speeding up' of print in the face of electronic media is juxta posed to the print-based metaphors and formats that shape the interfaces of word-processing programs. Two different facets of electronic textuality ar e then examined. First, websites illustrate a shift in the meaning of 'narr ative': the shape of plot is lost, the rhythm of beginning, middle and end. Second, by contrast, a stunning array of creative experimentation has been unleashed by the unchecked usage of a new medium (e.g. email writing and d igital storytelling). The article concludes with a call to mediate between worlds, the one that seems to be passing and the one yet to arrive.