Hybridity and Its Function!

Lloyd Bitzer tells us that discourse “comes to have a power of its own—“ in response to any situation. (Bitzer 13) Susan Delagrange’s Wunderkammer, Cornell, and the Visual Canon of Arrangement wondrously exemplifies this statement in that one might feel guided or even controlled by the form of the genre when trying to navigate it. Though I was physically in command of my fingers to move forward, my thoughts and interpretation were fully directed by the arrangement of the text. One might argue that, generally speaking, digital texts are far more directive than that of their printed predecessor, insofar as one is capable of digital comprehension. This is especially true for Delagrange’s text, as it is comprised of several genres and forms.

If genres are created “because they respond appropriately to situations writers encounter repeatedly.”, one should be interested in determining the situation at hand and how the arrangement aids our response. (Devitt 576) The introduction tells us that the goal of the text is to underscore the impact of techne on an artist’s ability to conceptualize our world. So, our text is a multimodal construct, combining text and image in order to amplify meaning, invoke understanding, and also to demonstrate the effect.

Wunderkrammers section titled “Reflection” offers continuously interchanging images being superimposed over one another. The movement of the images enwrap the reader in their purpose and call us to recognize the importance of their presence. The text alongside them, still and lifeless, offers a stark contrast to their counterpart, but serve their function all the same. We are given background knowledge on digital technologies and their functions and are better able to understand their use.

Conclusively, Susan Delagrange’s Wunderkammer, Cornell, and the Visual Canon of Arrangement facilitates a digital environment wherein readers can better understand techne, and is a hybrid genre using text, image, and the motion picture to make it's point.