Analyzing Digital Fiction PDF
Preview Analyzing Digital Fiction
Analyzing Digital Fiction Written for and read on a computer screen, digital fi ction pursues its ver- bal, discursive and conceptual complexity through the digital medium. It is fi ction whose structure, form, and meaning are dictated by the digital context in which it is produced and requires analytical approaches that are sensitive to its status as a digital artifact. A nalyzing Digital Fiction offers a collection of pioneering analyses based on replicable methodolog- ical frameworks. Chapters include analyses of hypertext fi ction, Flash fi ction, Twitterfi ction, and video games with approaches taken from nar- ratology, stylistics, semiotics, and ludology. Essays propose ways in which digital environments can expand, challenge, and test the limits of literary theories that have, until recently, predominantly been based on models and analyses of print texts. Alice Bell is Senior Lecturer in English Language and Literature at Sheffi eld Hallam University, UK. Astrid Ensslin is a Professor of Digital Culture and Communication at Ban- gor University, UK. Hans Kristian Rustad is Associate Professor in Scandinavian Literature at Hedmark University College, Norway. Routledge Studies in Rhetoric and Stylistics Edited by Michael Burke 1 Literary Reading, Cognition and 4 The Pragmatics of Literary Emotion Testimony An Exploration of the Oceanic Authenticity Effects in German Mind Social Autobiographies Michael Burke Chantelle Warner 2 Language, Ideology and Identity 5 Analyzing Digital Fiction in Serial Killer Narratives Edited by Alice Bell, Astrid Christiana Gregoriou Ensslin, and Hans Kristian Rustad 3 Beyond Cognitive Metaphor Theory Perspectives on Literary Metaphor Monika Fludernik Analyzing Digital Fiction Edited by Alice Bell, Astrid Ensslin, and Hans Kristian Rustad First published 2014 by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 and by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2014 Taylor & Francis The right of the editors to be identifi ed as the author of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identifi cation and explanation without intent to infringe. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Analyzing digital fi ction / Edited by Alice Bell, Astrid Ensslin and Hans Kristian Rustad. pages cm. — (Routledge studies in rhetoric and stylistics ; 5) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Hypertext fi ction—History and criticism. 2. Experimental fi ction— History and criticism. I. Bell, Alice, 1979– editor of compilation. PN3448.H96A43 2013 809.3'911—dc23 2013010784 ISBN: 978-0-415-65615-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-0-203-07811-2 (ebk) Typeset in Sabon by Apex CoVantage, LLC Contents List of Figures vii Acknowledgments ix Introduction 1 From Theorizing to Analyzing Digital Fiction 3 ALICE BELL, ASTRID ENSSLIN, AND HANS KRISTIAN RUSTAD SECTION I Narratological Approaches 2 Media-Specifi c Metalepsis in 10:01 21 ALICE BELL (SHEFFIELD HALLAM UNIVERSITY, UK) 3 Digital Fiction and Worlds of Perspective 39 DAVID CICCORICCO (UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO, NEW ZEALAND) 4. Seeing into the Worlds of Digital Fiction 57 DANIEL PUNDAY (PURDUE UNIVERSITY CALUMET, US) SECTION II Social Media and Ludological Approaches 5 Playing with Rather than by the Rules: Metaludicity, Allusive Fallacy, and Illusory Agency in The Path 75 ASTRID ENSSLIN (BANGOR UNIVERSITY, WALES) vi Contents 6 140 Characters in Search of a Story: Twitterfi ction as an Emerging Narrative Form 94 BRONWEN THOMAS (BOURNEMOUTH UNIVERSITY, UK) 7 Amnesia: The Dark Descent: The Player’s Very Own Purgatory 109 SUSANA TOSCA (IT UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN, DENMARK) 8 Wreading Together: The Double Plot of Collaborative Digital Fiction 124 ISABELL KLAIBER (UNIVERSITY OF TÜBINGEN, GERMANY) SECTION III Semiotic-Rhetorical Approaches 9 (In-)between Word, Image, and Sound: Cultural Encounter in Pullinger and Joseph’s F light Paths 143 HANS KRISTIAN RUSTAD (HEDMARK UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, NORWAY) 10 Figures of Gestural Manipulation in Digital Fictions 159 SERGE BOUCHARDON (UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY OF COMPIÈGNE, FRANCE) 11 Hyperfi ction as a Medium for Drifting Times: A Close Reading of the German Hyperfi ction Zeit für die Bombe 176 ALEXANDRA SAEMMER (UNIVERSITY OF PARIS 8, FRANCE) Afterword 12 Reading Digital Fiction: From Hypertext to Timeline 197 ROBERTO SIMANOWSKI (UNIVERSITY OF BASEL, SWITZERLAND) Contributors 207 Index 211 List of Figures with Figure Captions, Cases, or Illustrations 2.1 Screenshot of lexia 00:00:00:00 in 1 0:01 27 3.1 Screenshot of Radio Salience . Copyright Stuart Moulthrop 50 4.1 Screenshot of afternoon, a story by Michael Joyce. Published by Eastgate Systems, Inc. http://www.eastgate.com 60 5.1 Screenshot of Ginger’s trail in T he Path (fi rst play-through) 87 5.2 Screenshot of Ruby’s interface in T he Path (second play-through) 88 5.3 Screenshot of T he Path : Carmen’s image superimposed onto Ruby’s failed interaction with the security fence 88 7.1 Movements of meaning in poetry and hyperlinks 111 7.2 Centrifugal expansion of meanings in narrative games 120 8.1 Communication model of the double plot in collaborative narratives 126 9.1 Screenshot from F light Paths ’ episode three, where Yacub is about to enter the airplane’s landing gear. Original image by Paul Hart, http://www.fl icker.com/people/atomicjeep 149 10.1 Screenshot of Don’t touch me. LAL Annie Abrahams 161 10.2 The fi eld of intersection between the signifi cant features of the gesture and of the media 165 10.3 Screenshot of A nonymes version 1.0, scene “Nom-dit”, anonymes.net 167 10.4 Screenshot of Loss of Grasp, second scene 170 10.5 Screenshot of Loss of Grasp, third scene 171 10.6 Screenshot of Loss of Grasp, fourth scene 172 11.1 Screenshot of pub scene in Zeit für die Bombe 187 11.2 Screenshot of metalepsis in Zeit für die Bombe 188 11.3 Screenshot of fl ashing text in Z eit für die Bombe 189 Page Intentionally Left Blank Acknowledgments The editors wish to thank The Leverhulme Trust for funding the Digital Fiction International Network (DFIN) (Ref: F/00 455/E) from January to December 2009 and from which this project originated. The DFIN project brought together scholars from the UK (Alice Bell and Astrid Ensslin), Nor- way (Hans Kristian Rustad), the United States (Jessica Pressman), Canada (Jess Laccetti), and New Zealand (Dave Ciccoricco). The grant funded two research visits by the Investigators to Otago, New Zealand (Alice Bell) and to Yale (Astrid Ensslin), and a workshop also attended by the President of the Electronic Literature Organization, Joseph Tabbi, that initiated a num- ber of sole- and joint-authored publications including this volume. The authors and editors would like to thank the following for allow- ing reproduction of their copyright work: screenshot of 1 0:01 by Lance Olsen and Tim Guthrie reprinted by permission of Lance Olsen; screenshot of R adio Silence by Stuart Moulthrop reprinted by permission of Stuart Moulthrop; screenshot of a fternoon, a story by Michael Joyce reprinted by permission of Eastgate Systems, Inc. http://www.eastgate.com/; screen- shots of The Path reprinted by permission of Tale of Tales; screenshot of Flight Paths reprinted by permission of Chris Joseph (original image by Paul Hart, http://www.fl ickr.com/people/atomicjeep/); screenshot of Don’t touch me reprinted by permission of LAL Annie Abrahams; screenshot of Anonymes v.1 reprinted by permission of anonymes.com; screenshots of Loss of Grasp reprinted by permission of Serge Bouchardon; screenshots of Zeit für die Bombe reprinted by permission of Susanne Berkenheger. Every effort has been made to contact copyright holders. If any there are any errors or omissions, we will be pleased to make a correction at the earliest opportunity. Finally the editors would also like to thank Michael Burke (Series Edi- tor), Felisa Salvago-Keyes (Editor at Routledge), and all at Routledge for their assistance in the preparation and production of this book.
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