Table Of ContentAnalyzing 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
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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.
