© Lisbeth Klastup, 1997.
This dissertation was written as a part of the Masters-programme
in Image Studies at the University of Kent at Canterbury 1996/1997.
The dissertation was supervised by lecturer Bernard Sharratt. It
is currently on loan at the University of Kent University Library.
For a brief introduction to the contents of the dissertation,
please read the Introduction.
Readers guide: a few words on
terminology and references
Introduction
Chapter I
Chapter II
Chapter III
Conclusion
Bibliography
A few words on terminology and quotations
"Afternoon, lexia: he, he says, my emphasis"
Should the reader be unfamiliar with the works of Michael Joyce and Stuart Moulthrop, I recommend that they visit Eastgate's website at which it is possible to order these two fictions. Furthermore, an extract of Moulthrop's Victory Garden is accessible at http://www.eastgate.com/VG/VGStart.html. Read the introduction to Joyce's afternoon at http://www.eastgate.com/catalog/Afternoon.html. You may also visit the website linked with Sophie's World at http://www.sol.no/sofiesverden/.
I supplied the original hardcopy of this dissertation with a videotape containing a number of scenes from Sophie's World and The Pandora Directive recorded of the computer. Unfortunately, I am not able to provide this service for the WWW-readers, which might make the reading of part III somewhat less clarifying than I could have wished for. However, to my knowledge, both Sophie's World and The Pandora Directive should still be available at various computer game retailers.
I welcome any comments or questions concerning this piece of work. Please forward them to lklastrup@hotmail.com.
Lisbeth Klastrup, Copenhagen, March 1999
The dissertation is organised as follows: In chapter 1, I discuss the writings on hypertext by the hypertext-theorists George P. Landow and Jay David Bolter, authors respectively of Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology (1992) [1] and Writing Space: The Computer, Hypertext, and the History of Writing (1991) [2]. I examine which aspects of hypertextuality they focus on and which aspects they seem to disregard. Furthermore I touch briefly on the writings on hyperfiction writer Michael Joyce as well of the hypertext 'adversary' Sven Birkerts in order to get a more balanced and differentiated overview of the field as possible. To contrast theory with practice, in chapter 2, I analyse two hyperfiction products, Michael Joyce's afternoon and Stuart Moulthrop's Victory Garden from the point of view of a 'naive' reading of these. Taking afternoon as my example, the 'story-web', as I have chosen to call is, is analysed and evaluated according to the parameters I tried to outline at the end of chapter 1. Hence, I try to describe the experience of reading a hyperfiction whereupon I proceed to a discussion of the relation between 'the structure of the structure' and the reader's experience of being in control of his own reading. The discussion includes an evaluation of the degree of interaction the Storyspace authoring tool and the scriptor 'in combination' offer the reader. In chapter 3, I try to envision what one what one might do in future hyperfictions, partly to approximate them to the 'ideology' of hyperfiction expressed in the writings of the theorists discussed in chapter 1 and partly to counteract the negative effects of hyperfiction that I have come across in my analysis of afternoon and Victory Garden. In order to add a new and prospectively fruitful dimension to the discussion, this chapter briefly examines two variants on the electronic fiction: the semi-fictive introduction to philosophy on the 'entertainment' CD-ROM Sophie's World and the interactive computergame and film The Pandora Directive. Throughout the chapter, I focus particularly on aspects of reader-program' interaction and of identification with the storyworld through character. In the conclusion I try to make the various strands of thoughts that runs through the paper come together in an attempt to identify what seems to be some of the issues and areas that future scholars dealing with hyperfiction need to confront. One of those subjects that definitely beg for further investigation is that of writing hyperfiction with multimedia and a fundamental issue that, in my sense, calls for further elaboration is the question of the relationship between interaction with and immersion in the time and space of the storyworld(s) that a storyweb renders. Finally, I conclude that what one must also take into consideration when studying hyperfiction is a possible 'erotics of hyperfiction'.
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