Exploring (the poetics of) strange (and fractal) hypertexts

The ACM Hypertext conference has a rich history of challenging the node-link hegemony of the web. At Hypertext 2011 Pisarski [12] suggested that to refocus on nodes in hypertext might unlock a new poetics, and at Hypertext 2001 Bernstein [3] lamented the lack of strange hypertexts: playful tools that experiment with hypertext structure and form. As part of the emerging Strange Hypertexts community project we have been exploring a number of exotic hypertext tools, and in this paper we set out an early experiment with media and creative writing undergraduates to see what effect one particular form – Fractal Narratives, a hypertext where readers drill down into text in a reoccurring pattern – would have on their writing. In this particular trial, we found that most students did not engage in the structure from a storytelling point of view, although they did find value from a planning point of view. Participants conceptually saw the value in non-linear storytelling but few exploited the fractal structure to actually do this. Participant feedback leads us to conclude that while new poetics do emerge from strange hypertexts, this should be viewed as an ongoing process that can be reinforced and encouraged by designing tools that highlight and support those emerging poetics in a series of feedback loops, and by providing writing contexts where they can be highlighted and collaboratively explore

Nonlinearity and Incarnation in T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets and Susan Howe’s “The Nonconformist’s Memorial”

In “Nonlinearity and Incarnation in T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets and Susan Howe’s ‘The Nonconformist’s Memorial,’” I argue that nonlinearity is present in both language and literature, whether printed or electronic, and investigate two specific cases of poetic nonlinearity in printed works. Nonlinearity in language generally has been identified in, or at least suggested by, the work of a wide array of different literary and media theorists, and the comments of both scholars and poets reveal that nonlinearity is present to an even greater extent in poetry than in other written forms. In particular, this nonlinearity is evident in the decentered, linked structure of Eliot’s Four Quartets, which demands that its readers explore the space of the text and discover connections of various kinds within the Quartets. In “The Nonconformist’s Memorial” nonlinearity is a component of the nonconformist textual practices Susan Howe employs, which implicate and include the reader in the text’s confession of nonconformity. In both instances, Walter Ong’s notion of secondary orality is a significant component of poetic nonlinearity, and the hypertextual structure of lexia and link is a useful model for approaching these nonlinear poems. Finally, both poems include reference to the Christian Incarnation, which is itself an act of divine communication that cannot be fully conveyed by text alone; the nonlinear structures of these two works create the possibility for a fuller communication of the message of Incarnation than is possible with traditional texts

Hypertextuality and polyphony in Tom Stoppard's stage plays

This thesis analyses selected works of Tom Stoppard in terms of Genette's notion of 'hypertextuality' as transtextual relationship and Bakhtin's 'polyphony' of voices and ideas, and examines how the playwright's (re)creative and (re)interpretive rendering of literature, philosophy, aesthetics, science, art, culture and history offers his contemporary perspective on the multiplicity of themes and texts in the plays. The thesis identifies the appeal in (re)reading or (re)spectating Stoppard's explicitly palimpsestuous texts, while considering the extent to which receivers of the hypertexts need to be aware of and conversant with the hypotexts in order to fully appreciate Stoppard's work. Following the opening chapter, in which the critical concepts of hypertextuality and polyphony are discussed, chapter 2 considers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (1967) as a transfocalization of Shakespeare's Hamlet, demonstrating polyphony of dualities. Chapter 3 looks at Travesties (1974) as a hypertext which employs plural hypertextualities (pastiche, mixed parody and travesty) and which exhibits polyphony of perceptions on art and politics, using the device of mise-en-abyme. Chapter 4 explores Arcadia (1993) in terms of dramatic transposition of ideas from other disciplines and reactivation ofliterary pastoral traditions. In chapter 5, Indian Ink (1995) is analysed as a post-colonial perspective on the ethics of empire, re-contextualizing works of Anglo-Indian literature and art. Chapter 6 discusses The Coast of Utopia trilogy (2002) in terms of intermodal transmodalization, along with duplicity and polyphony of textual, structural and ideological layers. The concluding chapter questions the effect of Stoppard's hypertextual adaptation and polyphonic re-presentations on audiences and readers of different levels of familiarity with the hypotexts, arguing that the carefully constructed combination of contrasting ideas, paradoxes and dualities in Stoppard's hypertexts offers opportunities for appreciation at various levels of 'knowing', exposing the subjectivity of perceptions and celebrating the many- voicedness of society.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo

Technopoïesis: Transmedia Mythologisation and the Unity of Knowedge

It is difficult to explain why different disciplines are drawn to similar problems. Inter-relations are not always explainable by direct influence. It has been argued that any common ground derives from the fact that people share certain kinds of everyday experiences. Is ‘consilience’ or the unification of knowledge a utopia or a possibility, as William Whewell Edward Wilson would have it? This thematic issue of Icono14 explores the common premise underlying all human disciplines: the confirmation that technology has a direct impact upon sign production, distribution and reception and, thus, upon the entire system of human thought, cultural representation and cognition. The collection examines transmedial representations of technological advance by looking at their mythical shades of meanings as strategic narratives. As practical knowledge engaged in the creation and use of tools and machines as well as in the development of techniques and methods of organization that perform specific functions in making human life easier, the technologies of the past can shed some light on the future that emerging media can bring about for human groups

Play, Space and Idealized Reader Constructs in Contemporary Argentine Fiction: Jorge Luis Borges, Julio Cortázar, Ana María Shua and Belén Gache

This thesis explores the convergences and divergences in the personal conceptualizations of play, space and idealized reader constructs as they are manifest in the short fictions of Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortázar, the sudden fictions of AnaMaría Shua and, more recently, in the hypertext fictions of Belén Gache. The four chapters that make up this thesis offer an in-depth examination of how the narrative strategies employed by each individual author are used in an attempt to imbue the reading process with a game-like quality that serves to reduce the ontological distances between author, text and reader. As such, this thesis not only identifies key developments in the thematic and stylistic concerns of the Argentine short story, but also situates the reader’s position in relation to what I call the ‘narrative space’. This ‘narrative space’ refers to a spatially-inflected manifestation of the cognitive, imaginative and emotional experiences of the ideal reader construct that foregrounds his/her role in the co-production of narrative meaning. Such a focus not only allows this thesis to engage with each author’s individual contribution to the literary politics of the contemporary Argentine short story, but also facilitates a serious consideration of the short story’s ongoing dialogues with increasingly prevalent new media technologies

The Spatial Dimension of Narrative Understanding. Exploring Plot Types in the Narratives of Alessandro Baricco, Andrea Camilleri and Italo Calvino

The thesis explores the hypothesis that some plots might rely on spatiality as an organising principle that impacts on the narrative structure and, consequently, on the strategies adopted by readers to understand them. In order to lay the grounding for a spatially-oriented approach to narrative understanding, this study pursues both a theoretical line of inquiry and an applied line of inquiry in literary criticism. A cognitive stance on the nature of thought as non-propositional (Johnson-Laird 1983) and of the mind as embodied (Lakoff and Johnson 1999; Varela et al. 1993) provides the theoretical point of departure for the subsequent identification of a range of principles and frameworks that can be implemented to support a spatially-oriented interpretation according to the specificities of narratives. The three case studies provided by Alessandro Baricco’s City, Andrea Camilleri’s Montalbano crime series, and Italo Calvino’s Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore illustrate how a spatially-oriented perspective can add new interpretive angles and an unprecedented insight into the ways narratives achieve a coherent structure. At the same time, the case studies serve to extrapolate a set of features that constitute the preliminary criteria for assessing whether it would be fruitful to apply a spatially-oriented approach to a specific narrative. Baricco’s, Camilleri’s and Calvino’s works represent three plot types in which spatiality impinges in three different ways on the narrative, which, as I will show, can be epitomised by the image schemata of map, trajectory, and fractal. Far from simply referring to objects which plot is compared to, these images indicate procedural techniques and strategies of sense-making that a certain type of narrative is designed to prompt in the reader through textual cues. The study, in fact, builds on and advances a notion of plot to be analysed as a process rather than a given structure, something that readers understand as they read, and not retrospectively only

Twining

Hypertext is now commonplace: links and linking structure nearly all of our experiences online. Yet the literary, as opposed to commercial, potential of hypertext has receded. One of the few tools still focused on hypertext as a means for digital storytelling is Twine, a platform for building choice-driven stories without relying heavily on code. In Twining, Anastasia Salter and Stuart Moulthrop lead readers on a journey at once technical, critical, contextual, and personal. The book’s chapters alternate careful, stepwise discussion of adaptable Twine projects, offer commentary on exemplary Twine works, and discuss Twine’s technological and cultural background. Beyond telling the story of Twine and how to make Twine stories, Twining reflects on the ongoing process of making

Business, aesthetics and production at the Jim Henson Company

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Comparative Media Studies, 2007.Includes bibliographical references (p. 177-181) and index.Transmedia narratives use a combination of Barthesian hermeneutic codes, negative capability and migratory cues to guide audiences across multiple media platforms. This thesis examines complex narratives from comics, novels, films and video games, but draws upon the transmedia franchises built around Jim Henson's Labyrinth and The Dark Crystal to provide two primary case studies in how these techniques can be deployed with varying results. By paying close attention to staying in canon, building an open world, maintaining a consistent tone across extensions, carefully deciding when to begin building a transmedia franchise, addressing open questions while posing new ones, and looking for ways to help audiences keep track of how each extension relates to each other, transmedia storytellers can weave complex narratives that will prove rewarding to audiences, academics and producers alike.by Geoffrey A. Long.S.M