关键词: 电子游戏, 科幻作品, 乔伊斯小说, 后文学, 大文学, 两种文化

Abstract: Under the heavy pressures of digital revolution and STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics),literature departments around the globe are facing a bleak reality: the dwindling of reading public and shrinking literature majors in colleges. In response to Derrida's prophecy about the death of literature, numerous scholars and thinkers in the West have contemplated the awkward situation of refined literature and raised two practical questions: (1) In colleges today where STEM courses predominate, how can literary teaching re-energize itself? (2) In the world dominated by new media and telecommunications, how can we revive the public's interest in reading classic literary works? With these two questions in mind, this article, by examining C. P. Snow's idea of “Two Cultures” and the public's strong interest in science fiction, explores the connections between digital games and James Joyce's fiction, investigates the possible function of science fiction and digital games in resuscitating the public interest in literature, reflects on the way out for traditional literature pressurized by telecommunications, and proposes the concept of “greater literature” in preparation for the coming of a post-literary era.

Key words: digital games, science fiction, Joycean novel, post-literature, greater literature, Two Cultures