Literary Theory and Literary Theory and MethodologyMethodology

Session Seven: Electronic FictionSession Seven: Electronic Fiction

AgendaAgenda

• Fiction and the computer: Marie-Laure Ryan, Narrative as Virtual Reality: Immersion and Interactivity in Literature and Electronic Media.

• Hyper novels: – Babylondon

• ”Flash” fiction:– The.Powerbook– Because You Asked– Jim O’Gauble

Ryan’s Key ConceptsRyan’s Key Concepts

• Immersion• Spatial: setting• Temporal: plot• Emotional: character

• Interactivity– Figural– Literal

• Weak• Strong

ImmersionImmersion

• ”[…] the experience through which a fictional world acquires the presence of an autonomous, language-independent reality popullated with live human beings.” (14)

• ”[…]requires an active engagement with the text and a demanding act of imagining.” (15)

ImmersionImmersion

1. Spatial: setting

2. Temporal: plot

3. Emotional: character

InteractivityInteractivity

Figural:• ”[…] the collaboration

between the reader and the text in the production of meaning.” (16)→Iser

Literal:• ” the textual mechanisms

that enable the reader to affect the ’text’ of the text as a visible display of signs, and to control the dynamics of its unfolding.” (17)– Weak: ”[…] a choice

between predefined alternatives”

– Strong. ”[…] the physical production of the text.”

Two metaphors of TextTwo metaphors of Text

• World• Language is a

transparent mirror• Meaning is vertical

and referential• The reader as voyeur• Space is three-

dimensional

• Game• Language is an

opaque material• Meaning is horizontal

and intertextual• The reader as

(de)constructor• Space is two-

dimensional

ImmersionImmersion

• John William Waterhouse, 1894

ImmersionImmersion

• Jean-Honore Fragonard, The Reader (1769-72)

ImmersionImmersion

• Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Lady Reading the Letters of Heloise and Abelard (1758-1759)

ImmersionImmersion

ImmersionImmersion

Failed ImmersionFailed Immersion

• Réné Magritte, Ceçi n'est pas une pipe (1926)