cybertext narratology

Narrativity is one of the most difficult qualities of electronic literature to theorize. On the one hand, readers clearly have narrative experiences with electronic texts—​ from text-​ centric Storyspace hypertext fictions through commercial video games. On the other hand, many of the qualities that we value in electronic textuality, such as the variable way in which features of these texts are encountered by readers, work against traditional narrative coherence. Marie-​ Laure Ryan (2006: 196) speaks for many when she writes that “the root of the conflict between narrative design and interactivity (or gameplay) lies in the difficulty of integrating the bottom-​ up input of the player within the top-​ down structure of a narrative script.” The concept of narrativity itself has undergone significant rethinking in recent years, and as a result narratology offers more sophisticated ways of talking about how stories can appear in electronic texts than classical narrative models allowed. Before turning to particular features of electronic literature, let me begin with a basic history of the concept and identify key issues.(source: the first paragraph of the chapter) 

Equally interested in what is and what could be, Cybertext Poetics combines ludology and cybertext theory to solve persistent problems and introduce paradigm changes in the fields of literary theory, narratology, game studies, and digital media. The book first integrates theories of print and digital literature within a more comprehensive theory capable of coming to terms with the ever-widening media varieties of literary expression, and then expands narratology far beyond its current confines resulting in multiple new possibilities for both interactive and non-interactive narratives. By focusing on a cultural mode of expression that is formally, cognitively, affectively, socially, aesthetically, ethically and rhetorically different from narratives and stories, Cybertext Poetics constructs a ludological basis for comparative game studies, shows the importance of game studies to the understanding of digital media, and argues for a plurality of transmedial ecologies.

(Source: Continuum online catalog.)

The first volume of the Cybertext Yearbook.

Note: All articles published in the Cybertext Yearbook series are now also published on the Cybertext Yearbook Database.