Hypertext fiction - Wikipedia Hypertext fiction From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigation Jump to search Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature, characterized by the use of hypertext links that provide a new context for non-linearity in literature and reader interaction. The reader typically chooses links to move from one node of text to the next, and in this fashion arranges a story from a deeper pool of potential stories. Its spirit can also be seen in interactive fiction. The term can also be used to describe traditionally-published books in which a nonlinear narrative and interactive narrative is achieved through internal references. James Joyce's Ulysses (1922), Enrique Jardiel Poncela's La Tournée de Dios (1932), Jorge Luis Borges' The Garden of Forking Paths (1941), Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire (1962), Julio Cortázar's Rayuela (1963; translated as Hopscotch), and Italo Calvino's The Castle of Crossed Destinies (1973) are early examples predating the word "hypertext", while a common pop-culture example is the Choose Your Own Adventure series in young adult fiction and other similar gamebooks. The Garden of Forking Paths (1941) is both a hypertext story and is sometimes used as a description of having different possible paths. Contents 1 Definitions 2 History 3 Characteristics 4 Criticism 5 See also 6 References 7 Bibliography 8 External links Definitions[edit] There is little consensus on the definition of hypertext literature.[1] The similar term cybertext is often used interchangeably with hypertext.[2] In hypertext fiction, the reader assumes a significant role in the creation of the narrative. Each user obtains a different outcome based on the choices they make. Cybertexts may be equated to the transition between a linear piece of literature, such as a novel, and a game. In a novel the reader has no choice, the plot and the characters are all chosen by the author, there is no 'user,' just a 'reader,' this is important because it entails that the person working their way through the novel is not an active participant. In a game, the person makes decisions and decides what actions to take, what punches to punch, or when to jump. To Espen Aarseth, cybertext is not a genre in itself; in order to classify traditions, literary genres and aesthetic value, texts should be examined at a more local level.[3] To Aarseth, hypertext fiction is a kind of ergodic literature: In ergodic literature, nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the text. If ergodic literature is to make sense as a concept, there must also be nonergodic literature, where the effort to traverse the text is trivial, with no extranoematic responsibilities placed on the reader except (for example) eye movement and the periodic or arbitrary turning of pages.[citation needed] To Aarseth, the process of reading immersive narrative, in contrast, involves "trivial" effort, that is, merely moving one's eyes along lines of text and turning pages; the text does not resist the reader. History[edit] The first hypertext fictions were published prior to the development of the World Wide Web, using software such as Storyspace and HyperCard. Noted pioneers in the field are Judy Malloy and Michael Joyce. Douglas Cooper's Delirium (1994) was the first novel serialized on the World Wide Web; it permitted navigation between four parallel story strands. On June 21, 1996, Bobby Rabyd (aka Robert Arellano) published the World Wide Web's first interactive novel,[4] Sunshine 69, with navigable maps of settings, a nonlinear calendar of scenes, and a character "suitcase" enabling readers to try on nine different points of view. Shortly thereafter, in 1997, Mark Amerika released GRAMMATRON, a multi-linear work that was eventually exhibited in art galleries. In 2000, it was included in the Whitney Biennial of American Art.[5] In the 1990s, women and feminist artists took advantage of hypertext and produced dozens of works. Linda Dement’s Cyberflesh Girlmonster a hypertext CD-ROM that incorporates images of women’s body parts and remixes them to create new shapes. Dr. Caitlin Fisher’s hypertext novella “‘These Waves of Girls“ is set in three time periods of the protagonist exploring polymorphous perversity enacted in her queer identity through memory. The story is written as a reflection diary of the interconnected memories of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. It consists of an associated multi-modal collection of nodes includes linked text, still and moving images, manipulable images, animations, and sound clips. It won the Electronic Literature Organization award. Some other web examples of hypertext fiction include Adrienne Eisen's Six Sex Scenes (1995), Stuart Moulthrop's Hegirascope (1995, 1997), The Unknown (which won the trAce(Alt X award in 1998), The Company Therapist (1996-1999) (which won Net Magazine's "Entertainment Site of the Year"), and Caitlin Fisher's These Waves of Girls (2001) (which won the ELO award for fiction in 2001). More recent works include Stephen Marche's "Lucy Hardin's Missing Period" (2010)[6] and Paul La Farge’s * Luminous Airplanes (2011). The internationally oriented, but US based, Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) was founded in 1999 to promote the creation and enjoyment of electronic literature. Other organisations for the promotion of electronic literature include trAce Online Writing Community, a British organisation, started in 1995, that has fostered electronic literature in the UK, Dichtung Digital, a journal of criticism of electronic literature in English and German, and ELINOR, a network for electronic literature in the Nordic countries, which provides a directory of Nordic electronic literature. The Electronic Literature Directory lists many works of electronic literature in English and other languages. Characteristics[edit] Hypertext fiction is characterized by networked nodes of text making up a fictional story. There are often several options in each node that directs where the reader can go next. Unlike traditional fiction, the reader is not constrained by reading the fiction from start to end, depending on the choices they make. In this sense, it is similar to an encyclopaedia, with the reader reading a node and then choosing a link to follow. While this can be done more easily on paper, it is quite a different experience on a screen. The reader can be thrown into unpredictable loops because not all of the links are explained by their title. The fiction can contain text, quotes, and images. There are different forms that hypertext fiction can take. These forms are axial, arborescent, and networked. Axial hypertext fictions have a central story line with links that branch off and return to the central storyline. Arborescent fictions branch into mutually exclusive story lines, and networked fictions have multiple starting points and do not always have a set ending. A single work of hypertext fiction can have a mixture of these three forms. Criticism[edit] In 2013, Wired published an article to describe why hypertext fiction did not become popular; it was because the non-linear stories are difficult to write, since each section of the work would need to introduce characters or concepts.[7] However, hypertext is widely used to tell linear stories on the Internet by using hypertext links to other articles or arguments that are written by different people.[citation needed] See also[edit] Cybertext Gamebook Homestuck Hypertext poetry Interactive novel SCP Foundation Storyspace Text adventure Twine (software) Visual novel References[edit] ^ Yellowlees, Jane Douglas (2001). The End of Books—or Books Without End?: Reading Interactive Narratives. University of Michigan Press. p. 3. ISBN 0472088467. ^ Aarseth, Espen.1997. ergodic Literature. Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press. http://www.hf.uib.no/cybertext/Ergodic.html Archived 2000-12-16 at the Wayback Machine ^ Bolter, Jay David, Degrees of Freedom, retrieved from http://www.uv.es/~fores/programa/bolter_freedom.html ^ Ciccarello, Lisa. "Swiveling My Hips through the Interbunk (And Having a Great Time, Too)". Pif Magazine: January, 2000. ^ Artists Selected for the 2000 Whitney Biennial ^ http://walrusmagazine.com/lucyhardin/ ^ Why No One Clicked on the Great Hypertext Story March 16, 2013 Bibliography[edit] Cicconi, Sergio (2000). "The Shaping of Hypertextual Narrative". The Integrated Media Machine: A Theoretical Framework, Ed. M. Yla-Kotola, J. Suoranta, S. Inkinen & J. Rinne. Helsinki: University of Lapland. 101-120. Allen, Michael (2003). "This Is Not a Hypertext, But...: A Set of Lexias on Textuality". ctheory.net, Ed. Arthur and Marilouise Kroker. "The hypertext Tristram Shandy page", David R. Hammontree's page The Non-linear Tradition in Literature from The Electronic Labyrinth by Christopher Keep, Tim McLaughlin and Robin Parmar Andersen, Alan Lance (1981). "Elfland catacombs", Ames, Iowa: Winterhearth. Malloy, Judy (1998). "Hypernarrative in the Age of the Web". Portions of which were published on the National Endowment for the Arts Web Site. Ensslin, Astrid (2007). Canonizing Hypertext: Explorations and Constructions. London: Continuum. External links[edit] The Shaping of Hypertextual Narrative (by Sergio Cicconi) Eastgate hyperfiction catalog v t e Narrative Character Antagonist Antihero Archenemy Character arc Character flaw Characterization Deuteragonist False protagonist Focal character Foil Gothic double Narrator Protagonist Stock character Straight man Supporting character Title character Tragic hero Tritagonist Plot Act Act structure Three-act structure Action Backstory Chekhov's gun Cliché Cliffhanger Conflict Deus ex machina Dialogue Dramatic structure Exposition/Protasis Rising action/Epitasis Climax/Peripeteia Falling action/Catastasis Denouement/Catastrophe Eucatastrophe Foreshadowing Flashback Flashforward Frame story In medias res Kishōtenketsu MacGuffin Occam's razor Pace Plot device Plot twist Poetic justice Red herring Reveal Self-fulfilling prophecy Shaggy dog story Story arc Subplot Suspense Trope Setting Alternate history Backstory Crossover Dreamworld Dystopia Fictional location city country universe Utopia Theme Irony Leitmotif Metaphor Moral Motif Style Allegory Bathos Diction Figure of speech Imagery Narrative techniques Mode Mood Narration Stylistic device Suspension of disbelief Symbolism Tone Structure Linear narrative Nonlinear narrative films television series Types of fiction with multiple endings Form Cantastoria Comics Epic Fable Fabliau Fairy tale Flash fiction Folktale Kamishibai Gamebook Legend Novel Novella Parable Play Poem Screenplay Short story Vignette (literature) Genre Action fiction Adventure Comic Crime Docufiction Epistolary Erotic Fantasy Fiction Gothic Historical Horror List of writing genres Magic realism Mystery Nautical Non-Fiction Paranoid Philosophical Picaresque Political Pop culture Psychological Religious Rogue Romance Saga Satire Science Speculative Superhero Theological Thriller Urban Western Narration First-person Multiple narrators Stream of consciousness Stream of unconsciousness Unreliable Diegesis Self-insertion Tense Past Present Future Related Audience Author Creative nonfiction Fiction writing Literary science Literary theory Narratology Political narrative Rhetoric Screenwriting Storytelling Tellability v t e Hypermedia Basics Hypertext Hyperlink Hypertext fiction Hypervideo Adaptive hypermedia educational authoring Hyperlinks in virtual worlds Resource identifiers Uniform resource identifier Internationalized resource identifier Uniform resource name Uniform resource locator Extensible resource identifier Persistent uniform resource locator Semantic URL Concepts anchor text click path Domain name click here Copyright aspects of hyperlinking and framing deep linking Fat link URI fragment Hostname Hypertext Inline linking inbound link/backlink HTTP referer image map Internal link Internet bookmark linkback Link relation Link rot Object hyperlinking Path Screen hotspot Source tracking transclusion URI scheme URL normalization URL redirection Website Web page XML namespace Technology CURIE Hypertext Transfer Protocol XLink See also Digital poetry History of hypertext Interactive novel Interactive fiction Timeline of hypertext technology Copyright aspects of hyperlinking and framing World Wide Web Domain Application Protocol Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Hypertext_fiction&oldid=954746571" Categories: Narrative forms Web fiction Hypertext Hidden categories: Webarchive template wayback links All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from August 2013 Articles with unsourced statements from April 2020 Navigation menu Personal tools Not logged in Talk Contributions Create account Log in Namespaces Article Talk Variants Views Read Edit View history More Search Navigation Main page Contents Current events Random article About Wikipedia Contact us Donate Contribute Help Learn to edit Community portal Recent changes Upload file Tools What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Permanent link Page information Cite this page Wikidata item Print/export Download as PDF Printable version In other projects Wikimedia Commons Languages Català Deutsch Español Galego 한국어 Italiano Magyar Norsk bokmål Polski Português Türkçe Українська Edit links This page was last edited on 4 May 2020, at 03:06 (UTC). 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