aesthetics of frustration

By Patricia Tomaszek, 28 October, 2013
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95-121
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All Rights reserved
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Abstract (in English)

The paper will present a percepto-cognitive theory of e-poetry. This theory uses a non-ontologic approach of literature in which the concept of "text" cannot be defined independendly from the mind representation for the system. This conception, named "theorie du texte lié à une profondeur" (theory of text linked to a deep) will be present. In this theory, the main concepts are the mind representation of the system, named the "profondeur de dispositif" (system-deep), and the set of elements which can be perceived as a classical text. This set is named the "texte-à-voir" (text-to-be-seen). The system-deep which seems to govern the real behaviour of the system in e-literature is named the procedural archetype. The paper will present the main caracteristic features of it, specially the particular position of the reader. The most important features relative to the reading are the "double reading" and the "aesthetics of frustration": to construct the sense of a work, the reader "has to read his reading", even if the work is non-interactive. This particularity is named "double reading". The aesthetics of frustration consist to use a classical archetype, uncompatible with the real behaviour of the system. It is a strategy of writing: The author supposes that the reader uses this classical archetype. Reading can fail, and this failure is a part of the work. This is why this strategy is named the aesthetics of frustration. In fact, reading does not fail when the reader uses the procedural system-deep. This strategy needs the double-reading to sublimate a failure of reading. Several examples by authors published in "alire" or "KAOS" will ilustrate these points.

Source: Author's Abstract

Creative Works referenced
By Patricia Tomaszek, 27 May, 2011
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Year
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xiv, 404
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CC Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike
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Approved by librarian
Abstract (in English)

The Interactive Fiction (IF) genre describes text-based narrative experiences in which a person interacts with a computer simulation by typing text phrases (usually commands in the imperative mood) and reading software-generated text responses (usually statements in the second person present tense). Re-examining historical and contemporary IF illuminates the larger fields of electronic literature and game studies. Intertwined aesthetic and technical developments in IF from 1977 to the present are analyzed in terms of language (person, tense, and mood), narrative theory (Iser's gaps, the fabula / sjuzet distinction), game studies / ludology (player apprehension of rules, evaluation of strategic advancement), and filmic representation (subjective POV, time-loops). Two general methodological concepts for digital humanities analyses are developed in relation to IF: implied code, which facilitates studying the interactor's mental model of an interactive work; and frustration aesthetics, which facilitates analysis of the constraints that structure interactive experiences. IF works interpreted in extended "close interactions" include Plotkin's Shade (1999), Barlow's Aisle (2000), Pontious's Rematch (2000), Foster and Ravipinto's Slouching Towards Bedlam (2003), and others. Experiences of these works are mediated by implications, frustrations, and the limiting figures of their protagonists.

(Source: From the author´s website)