DIGITAL LITERATURE

Electronic literature or digital literature is a genre of literature encompassing works

created exclusively on and for digital devices, such as computers, tablets, and mobile phones.
A work of electronic literature can be defined as "a construction whose literary aesthetics
emerge from computation", "work that could only exist in the space for which it was
developed/written/coded—the digital space". This means that these writings cannot be easily
printed, or cannot be printed at all, because elements crucial to the text are unable to be
carried over onto a printed version. The digital literature world continues to innovate print's
conventions all the while challenging the boundaries between digitized literature and
electronic literature. Some novels are exclusive to tablets and smartphones for the simple fact
that they require a touchscreen. Digital literature tends to require a user to traverse through
the literature through the digital setting, making the use of the medium part of the literary
exchange. Espen J. Aarseth wrote in his book Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic
Literature that "it is possible to explore, get lost, and discover secret paths in these texts, not
metaphorically, but through the topological structures of the textual machinery".

A definition offered by the Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) states electronic

literature "refers to works with an important literary aspect that takes advantage of the
capabilities and contexts provided by the stand-alone or networked computer". This can
include Hypertext fiction, animated poetry (often called kinetic poetry), literary chatbots,
computer-generated narratives or poetry, art installations with significant literary
aspects, Interactive fiction and literary uses of social media.

A gradual transition into the digital world began with new advancements in technology to
makes things more efficient and accessible. This is comparable to the release of the printing
press in the 15th century, as people did not consider it a major contributor to literature at first.
In the 1960s and 1970s, the creation of the personal computer allowed people to begin
expanding literature into the electronic realm.

Predecessors

In 1877, spoken word recordings began with the invention of the phonograph. In the 1930s,
the first "talking book" recordings were made to hold short stories and book chapters. The
1970s were when the term "audiobook" became part of the vernacular as cassette tapes
entered the public. 1971 was the year officially accepted as the year of the first e-book.
Although there were several contenders to the invention of an "electronic book" prior to this,
Michael Hart, the founder of the Gutenberg Project, has been accepted as the official inventor
of the e-book after creating a digital copy of the Declaration of Independence.

Early history

In 1975–76, Will Crowther programmed a text game named Colossal Cave Adventure (also
known as Adventure). Considered one of the earlier computer adventure games, it possessed a
story that had the reader make choices on which way to go. These choices could lead the
reader to the end, or to his or her untimely death. This non-linear format was later mimicked
by the text adventure game, Zork, created by a group of MIT students in 1977–79. These two
games are considered to be the first examples of interactive fiction as well as some of the
earliest video games. The earliest pieces of electronic literature as presently defined were
created using Storyspace, software developed by Jay David Bolter and Michael Joyce in the
1980s. They sold the software in 1990 to Eastgate Systems, a small software company that
has maintained and updated the code in Storyspace up to the present. Storyspace and other
similar programs use hypertext to create links within text. Literature using hypertext is
frequently referred to as hypertext fiction. Originally, these stories were often disseminated
on discs and later on CD. Hypertext fiction is still being created today using not only
Storyspace, but other programs such as Twine.

Modern

While hypertext fiction is still being made and interactive fiction created with text stories and
images, there is a discussion over the term, "literature" being used to describe video games.
Though Adventure and Zork are considered video games, advancements in technology have
evolved video gaming mediums from text to action and back to text. More often than not,
video games are told as interactive literature where the player makes choices and alters the
outcome of the story. The video game Mass Effect's story is entirely based around these
choices, and Mass Effect 3 is an even better example, changing character interactions with the
player character and how the game ends is based on the player's actions.

In other instances, the games are a story and the player exists to move the plot
along. Journey, a game by Thatgamecompany released in 2012 for the PlayStation 3, is more
story than game. The titular "journey" is the trek the player takes from start to finish as a
character with limited mobility and world interaction. While the player can play with one
other player at a time on the network, they cannot communicate through traditional means.
With no actual words, this game takes the player through a world from prologue to epilogue.
In Espen Aarseth's Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, he defines "ergodic
literature" as literature where "nontrivial effort is required to allow the reader to traverse the
text".An example from Aarseth states, "Since writing always has been a spatial activity, it is
reasonable to assume that ergodic textuality has been practiced as long as linear writing. For
instance, the wall inscriptions of the temples in ancient Egypt were often connected two-
dimensionally (on one wall) or three-dimensionally (from wall to wall and from room to
room), and this layout allowed a nonlinear arrangement of the religious text in accordance
with the symbolic architectural layout of the temple." Using these examples hypertext fiction
and interactive fiction can be considered ergodic literature, and under the umbrella of
interactive fiction, so can video games. Electronic literature continues to evolve.

Why are digital writings created?

Digital writing is distinct from traditional writing not only in terms of the way ideas are
presented but how those ideas are born. Digital spaces allow for ideas to develop naturally,
for the writer to receive feedback more frequently, and allow multiple forms of media to be
integrated into the writing seamlessly.

What are the characteristics of electronic literature?

In this genre (computer-generated poetry), a (sequence of) text is produced based on pre-
programmed instructions and a certain basic vocabulary. This process, which does not lead to
a fixed result, unfolds during the act of reading and can sometimes also be directed by reader
instructions.

What is digital literature that uses links and includes parts that move or mutate?

Hypertext poetry is a form of digital poetry that uses links using hypertext mark-up. It is a
very visual form, and is related to hypertext fiction and visual arts. The links mean that a
hypertext poem has no set order, the poem moving or being generated in response to the links
that the reader/user chooses.

What is graphic novel in literature?

“Graphic Novel” is a format, not a genre. Graphic novels can be fiction, non-fiction, history,
fantasy, or anything in-between. Graphic novels are similar to comic books because they use
sequential art to tell a story. Unlike comic books, graphic novels are generally stand-alone
stories with more complex plots.

What is the basic concept of digital humanities?

“The digital humanities, also known as humanities computing, is a field of study, research,
teaching, and invention concerned with the intersection of computing and the disciplines of
the humanities. It is methodological by nature and interdisciplinary in scope.

What is the purpose of electronic literature?

Electronic literature, or e-lit, refers to works with important literary aspects that take
advantage of the capabilities and contexts provided by the stand-alone or networked
computer” (What is E-Lit?). This definition has served the field well, but genres change at an
accelerated pace in the digital world.

When did digital literature start?

As we have seen, the text that has been considered for years (and the discussion is still open)
the first piece of digital literature was made in Germany in 1959, and the “Love Letters”
generator was invented by the British Christopher Strachey in 1952.

What is the importance of using multimedia in interpreting literary texts?

Multimedia can serve to shape the social context in which literary works can be
explored/experienced with others. Students and their teacher have a central source of images,
sounds and text that can stimulate and facilitate the sharing of responses.

Why do literary genres matter?

Genres create expectations. – Familiarity with genres also makes life easier for readers. If
they have a general idea about how research reports work, they can read them faster and
make sense of the information in them more quickly.
What is online literature?

Online literature typically refers to some form of literature, which can include both poetry
and prose, published in a digital format on the Internet. This can include original works
written and posted onto a website prior to any type of physical publication in book form.

CHARACTERISTICS OF DIGITAL LITERATURE

Non-linearity
Non-linearity means that a work cannot or does not have to be read as continuous text, but
can be read in various ways. This characteristic is closely linked with interactivity, because
the reader usually has to decide how he/she wants to continue reading the text at various
points in the text. Hypertext is a closely related technique. Within electronic literature,
hypertext literature (and in particular hypertext fiction) is often distinguished as a specific
genre. Just like traditional printed literature, a lot of hypertext literature (especially novels)
are commercial products. This is the case, for example, for the classic Afternoon, a
story (Michael Joyce, 1987/1990), published by Eastgate. Other publications by this publisher
of English-language hypertext fiction include Victory Garden (Stuart Moulthrop, 1995)
and Patchwork Girl (Shelley Jackson, 1995).
Here is an example of hypertext literature on the Internet:
Hegirascope (Stuart Moulthrop, 1997/1998)[hypertext fiction]

Interactivity
Interactivity means that the reader largely determines how a text is read, which turn a story
takes, when the next portion of a work is shown, or whether a particular picture is shown or
sound is played, for example. Although this characteristic is oftenconnected to non-linearity
(see above) and thus with hypertext fiction, this is definitely not always the case.
Examples:
The Jew's Daughter (Judd Morrissey)
Blue Hyacinth (Jim Anderson) [interactivity, motion] and other Stir Fry Texts

Multimediality
If text is combined with images, sound, animations and/or video, we call this multimediality.
This is an important feature of electronic literature.
Examples:
Slaaplied (Tonnus Oosterhof) [text and music]
Faith (Robert Kendall) [use of colours, animation, music, timing and motion,]

Mobility and variability

Certain types of electronic literature are not static. For example, it is possible play with the
place of letters and/or words in the text by making them move over the screen in order to
support what is being told in some way. Portions of text can also be interchanged (whether or
not after reader input), so that not only the form of a poem, for example, changes during
reading, but its contents as well.
Example:
The Dreamlife of Letters (Brian Kim Stefans)

Transience
Some electronic literature isnotpermanent butephemeral and temporary, because it takes a
different shape every time it is viewed and cannot be stored in a single, fixed form. This
characteristic is related to mobility and variability, as mentioned above, but also has its own
aspects. For example, it is an important feature of computer-generated poetry. In this genre
(computer-generated poetry), a (sequence of) text is produced based on pre-programmed
instructions and a certain basic vocabulary. This process, which does not lead to a fixed
result, unfolds during the act of reading and can sometimes also be directed by reader
instructions.
Examples:
Emotionally configurable poem generator (Peter Howard) [computer-generated poetry]
Regime Change (Noah Wardrip-Fruin e.a.) [computer-generated poetry]

Three-dimensionality
Some works use (the illusion of) a third dimension to present and manipulate text.
Examples:
Five by Five (Dan Weber) [3d; motion]
Heart Pole (David Knoebel) [3d; motion]
Of course, computer displays are limited when it comes to 3D-presentation, but a major
development in this field is CAVE, a space equipped with screens on which computer-
generated images are projected. Together with the special glasses that CAVE users have to
wear, this creates the impression that the images emanate from the walls in 3D. An example
of a literary application of CAVE is Screen, by Noah Wardrip-Fruin et al.

Fusion with other art forms

Whereas in electronic literature the literary aspect is central and other media are used to
support and enhance it, there are other art forms that are more of a fusion of electronic
literature with other (digital) art forms, such as the visual arts, film, music and computer
games, in such a way that the dividing line between the one art form and the other one
blurs. Interactive fiction, a term used for storytelling text games, is a good example of thist
type of fusion, although it can also be seen as a genre of its own.
Examples:
The Child (Alex Gopher en Antoine Bardou-Jacquet) [video; narrative calligram]
Façade: a one-act interactive drama

Collaboration
Although literature spread through new communication media such as Email, SMS, wikis,
rss-feeds and blogs is not covered by the definition of electronic literature used in this
Workbench (see the introduction), these forms are, in fact, the product of a new way of
creating literature that is well worth mentioning. This involves works of literature that are
created in the context of a literary community that can influence how the text is produced.
These works 'grow', as it were, as readers make their own contributions to them, which can
come in all shapes and sizes. Kate Pullinger and Chris Joseph, for example, are currently
working on Flight Paths, using the CommentPress system. They call this a 'networked novel',
where reader input can influence the development of the work.

INTERACTIVE FICTION

Interactive fiction, often abbreviated IF, is software simulating environments in which

players use text commands to control characters and influence the environment. Works in this
form can be understood as literary narratives, either in the form of interactive
narratives or interactive narrations. These works can also be understood as a form of video
game, either in the form of an adventure game or role-playing game. In common usage, the
term refers to text adventures, a type of adventure game where the entire interface can be
"text-only", however, graphical text adventures still fall under the text adventure category if
the main way to interact with the game is by typing text. Some users of the term distinguish
between interactive fiction, known as "Puzzle-free", that focuses on narrative, and "text
adventures" that focus on puzzles.

Due to their text-only nature, they sidestepped the problem of writing for widely divergent
graphics architectures. This feature meant that interactive fiction games were easily ported
across all the popular platforms at the time, including CP/M (not known for gaming or strong
graphics capabilities). The number of interactive fiction works is increasing steadily as new
ones are produced by an online community, using freely available development systems.

The term can also be used to refer to analogue versions of literary works that are not read in a
linear fashion, known as gamebooks, where the reader is instead given choices at different
points in the text; these decisions determine the flow and outcome of the story. The most
famous example of this form of printed fiction is the Choose Your Own Adventure book
series, and the collaborative "addventure" format has also been described as a form of
interactive fiction. The term "interactive fiction" is sometimes used also to refer to visual
novels, a type of interactive narrative software popular in Japan.

Text adventures are one of the oldest types of computer games and form a subset of
the adventure genre. The player uses text input to control the game, and the game state is
relayed to the player via text output. Interactive fiction usually relies on reading from a screen
and on typing input, although text-to-speech synthesizers allow blind and visually impaired
users to play interactive fiction titles as audio games. Interactive fiction features two distinct
modes of writing: the player input and the game output. As described above, player input is
expected to be in simple command form (imperative sentences).[5] A typical command may
be:

The responses from the game are usually written from a second-person point of view,
in present tense. This is because, unlike in most works of fiction, the main character is closely
associated with the player, and the events are seen to be happening as the player plays. While
older text adventures often identified the protagonist with the player directly, newer games
tend to have specific, well-defined protagonists with separate identities from the player. The
classic essay "Crimes Against Mimesis" discusses, among other IF issues, the nature of
"You" in interactive fiction. A typical response might look something like this, the response
to "look in tea chest" at the start of Curses:
That was the first place you tried, hours and hours ago now, and there's nothing there but that
boring old book. You pick it up anyway, bored as you are.

Many text adventures, particularly those designed for humour (such as Zork, The Hitchhiker's
Guide to the Galaxy, and Leather Goddesses of Phobos), address the player with an informal
tone, sometimes including sarcastic remarks (see the transcript from Curses, above, for an
example). The late Douglas Adams, in designing the IF version of his 'Hitchhiker's Guide to
the Galaxy', created a unique solution to the final puzzle of the game: the game requires the
one solitary item that the player didn't choose at the outset of play.

Some IF works dispense with second-person narrative entirely, opting for a first-person
perspective ('I') or even placing the player in the position of an observer, rather than a direct
participant. In some 'experimental' IF, the concept of self-identification is eliminated entirely,
and the player instead takes the role of an inanimate object, a force of nature, or an abstract
concept; experimental IF usually pushes the limits of the concept and challenges many
assumptions about the medium.

History

1960s and 70s

Natural language processing

Though neither program was developed as a narrative work, the software

programs ELIZA (1964–1966) and SHRDLU (1968–1970) can formally be considered early
examples of interactive fiction, as both programs used natural language processing to take
input from their user and respond in a virtual and conversational manner. ELIZA simulated a
psychotherapist that appeared to provide human-like responses to the user's input, while
SHRDLU employed an artificial intelligence that could move virtual objects around an
environment and respond to questions asked about the environment's shape. The development
of effective natural language processing would become an essential part of interactive fiction
development.[8]

Adventure

Around 1975, Will Crowther, a programmer and an amateur caver, wrote the first text
adventure game, Adventure (originally called ADVENT because a filename could only be six
characters long in the operating system he was using, and later named Colossal Cave
Adventure).[9] Having just gone through a divorce, he was looking for a way to connect with
his two young children. Over the course of a few weekends, he wrote a text based cave
exploration game that featured a sort of guide/narrator who talked in full sentences and who
understood simple two-word commands that came close to natural English. Adventure was
programmed in Fortran for the PDP-10. Crowther's original version was an
accurate simulation of part of the real Colossal Cave, but also included fantasy elements
(such as axe-wielding dwarves and a magic bridge).

Stanford University graduate student Don Woods discovered Adventure while working at
the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, and in 1977 obtained and expanded
Crowther's source code (with Crowther's permission). Woods's changes were reminiscent of
the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien, and included a troll, elves, and a volcano some claim is based
on Mount Doom, but Woods says was not.[10][11]

In early 1977, Adventure spread across ARPAnet, and has survived on the Internet to this
day. The game has since been ported to many other operating systems, and was included with
the floppy-disk distribution of Microsoft's MS-DOS 1.0 OS. Adventure is a cornerstone of the
online IF community; there currently exist dozens of different independently programmed
versions, with additional elements, such as new rooms or puzzles, and various scoring
systems.

The popularity of Adventure led to the wide success of interactive fiction during the late
1970s, when home computers had little, if any, graphics capability. Many elements of the
original game have survived into the present, such as the command 'xyzzy', which is now
included as an Easter Egg in modern games, such as Microsoft Minesweeper.

HYPERTEXTS

Hypertext is text displayed on a computer display or other electronic devices with references
(hyperlinks) to other text that the reader can immediately access. Hypertext documents are
interconnected by hyperlinks, which are typically activated by a mouse click, keypress set, or
screen touch. Apart from text, the term "hypertext" is also sometimes used to describe tables,
images, and other presentational content formats with integrated hyperlinks. Hypertext is one
of the key underlying concepts of the World Wide Web,] where Web pages are often written
in the Hypertext Markup Language (HTML). As implemented on the Web, hypertext enables
the easy-to-use publication of information over the Internet.
Hypertext writing has developed its own style of fiction, coinciding with the growth and
proliferation of hypertext development software and the emergence of electronic networks.
Two software programs specifically designed for literary
hypertext, Storyspace and Intermedia became available in the 1990s.

An advantage of writing a narrative using hypertext technology is that the meaning of the
story can be conveyed through a sense of spatiality and perspective that is arguably unique to
digitally networked environments. An author's creative use of nodes, the self-contained units
of meaning in a hypertextual narrative, can play with the reader's orientation and add
meaning to the text.

One of the most successful computer games, Myst, was first written in Hypercard. The game
was constructed as a series of Ages, each Age consisting of a separate Hypercard stack. The
full stack of the game consists of over 2500 cards. In some ways, Myst redefined interactive
fiction, using puzzles and exploration as a replacement for hypertextual narrative.

Critics of hypertext claim that it inhibits the old, linear, reader experience by creating several
different tracks to read on, and that this in turn contributes to a postmodernist fragmentation
of worlds. In some cases, hypertext may be detrimental to the development of appealing
stories (in the case of hypertext Gamebooks), where ease of linking fragments may lead to
non-cohesive or incomprehensible narratives. However, they do see value in its ability to
present several different views on the same subject in a simple way. This echoes the
arguments of 'medium theorists' like Marshall McLuhan who look at the social and
psychological impacts of the media. New media can become so dominant in public culture
that they effectively create a "paradigm shift" as people have shifted their perceptions,
understanding of the world, and ways of interacting with the world and each other in relation
to new technologies and media. So hypertext signifies a change from linear, structured and
hierarchical forms of representing and understanding the world into fractured, decentralized
and changeable media based on the technological concept of hypertext links.

In the 1990s, women and feminist artists took advantage of hypertext and produced dozens of
works. Linda Dement's Cyberflesh Girlmonster a hypertext CD-ROM that incorporates
images of women's body parts and remixes them to create new monstrous yet beautiful
shapes. Dr. Caitlin Fisher's award-winning online hypertext novella "'These Waves of Girls"
is set in three time periods of the protagonist exploring polymorphous perversity enacted in
her queer identity through memory. The story is written as a reflection diary of the
interconnected memories of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. It consists of an
associated multi-modal collection of nodes includes linked text, still and moving images,
manipulable images, animations, and sound clips.

ANIMATED POETRY

Animated poetry is most simply described as an art form in which the artist renders a text
poem using moving or animated words. Abstract, descriptive or allegorical animated images
may also be used instead of, or with, the moving text.

Animated poetry need not consist of only moving or animated text, it is often composed of
several media types, including sound/music, animation, photography/videography, written
text and spoken words. The images, sounds, motion and the viewer's visual perception of the
poem are an integral part of animated poetry, as important as the text itself. The elements of
animated poetry combine to form a unified artistic expression, expressing a concept, idea,
event or emotion much like traditional poetry. It is also known as video poetry, video-visual
poetry, poetronica, poetry video, media poetry, or Cin(E)-Poetry depending on the length and
content of the video work and the techniques employed (e.g. digital technology) in its
creation.

Video poetry is a wide-ranging category where very different typologies of works converge.
Some video poetry works use digital elaboration to achieve Digital poetry that is entirely
generated by software. When absent of digital effects, video poetry is akin
to performance works or a poetry reading recorded in video (digital or analogue) but goes
beyond the straightforward act of recording to establish a link with video art. In this sense,
video poetry is a particular form of video art comprising poetry texts elaborated at various
acoustic and visual levels.

INSTAPOETRY

Instapoetry is a style of written poetry that emerged after the advent of social media.
Instapoetry is a term that can be used to describe poems written specifically for being shared
online, most commonly on Instagram (but also other platforms including Twitter, Tumblr,
and TikTok).

Such form usually consists of short, direct lines in aesthetically pleasing fonts that are
sometimes accompanied by an image or drawing, with or without a rhyme scheme.
Instapoetry developed as a result of poets trying to share their work in order to expand their
readership. Writers of this "sub-genre" began using social media as their preferred method of
distribution rather than traditional publishing methods. The term "instapoetry" was created by
other writers trying to define and understand the new extension of instant poetry shared via
social media, most prominently Instagram.[3]

In its most basic form, Instapoetry usually consists of byte-sized verses that consider political
and social subjects such as immigration, domestic violence, sexual assault, love, culture,
feminism, gun violence, war, racism, LGBTQ rights, and other social justice topics.[2][4] All
of these elements are usually made to fit social media feeds that are easily accessible through
applications on smartphones.

CHATTERBOTS

ChatterBot is a Python library that makes it easy to generate automated responses to a user’s
input. ChatterBot uses a selection of machine learning algorithms to produce different types
of responses. This makes it easy for developers to create chat bots and automate
conversations with users. For more details about the ideas and concepts behind ChatterBot
see the process flow diagram.

An example of typical input would be something like this:

user: Good morning! How are you doing?

bot: I am doing very well, thank you for asking.
user: You're welcome.
bot: Do you like hats?

The language independent design of ChatterBot allows it to be trained to speak any language.
Additionally, the machine-learning nature of ChatterBot allows an agent instance to improve
it’s own knowledge of possible responses as it interacts with humans and other sources of
informative data.

ChatterBot is a Python library designed to make it easy to create software that can engage in
conversation.

An untrained instance of ChatterBot starts off with no knowledge of how to communicate.

Each time a user enters a statement, the library saves the text that they entered and the text
that the statement was in response to. As ChatterBot receives more input the number of
responses that it can reply and the accuracy of each response in relation to the input statement
increase.

The program selects the closest matching response by searching for the closest matching
known statement that matches the input, it then chooses a response from the selection of
known responses to that statement.

TWITTERATURE

Twitterature (a portmanteau of Twitter and literature) is a literary use of

the microblogging service of Twitter. It includes various genres, including aphorisms, poetry,
and fiction (or some combination thereof) written by individuals or collaboratively. The 280-
character maximum imposed by the medium, upgraded from 140 characters in late 2017,
provides a creative challenge.

Aphorisms are popular because their brevity is inherently suited to Twitter. People often
share well-known classic aphorisms on Twitter, but some also seek to craft and share their
own brief insights on every conceivable topic. Boing Boing has described Twitter as
encouraging "a new age of the aphorism", citing the novel aphorisms of Aaron Haspel.

Haiku are a brief poetic form well suited to Twitter; many examples can be found using
the hashtag #haiku. Other forms of poetry can be found under other hashtags or by
"following" people who use their Twitter accounts for journals or poetry. For example, the
Swedish poet and journalist Göran Greider tweets observations and poems using the Twitter
handle @GreiderDD (Göran Greider) as shown in the example on the right.

Twitterature fiction includes 140-character stories, fan fiction, the retelling of literary classics
and legends, twitter novels, and collaborative works. The terms "twiction" and "tweet fic"
(Twitter fiction), "twiller" (Twitter thriller),[6] and "phweeting" (fake tweeting) also exist to
describe particular twitterature fiction genres.

Twitter novels (or twovels) are another form of fiction that can extend over hundreds of
tweets to tell a longer story. The author of a Twitter novel is often unknown to the readers, as
anonymity creates an air of authenticity. As such, the account name can often be
a pseudonym or even a character in the story. Twitter novels can run for months, with one or
more tweets daily, whereby context is usually maintained by a unique hashtag. Searching by
the corresponding hashtag produces a list of all available tweets in the series. Some serials are
posted in short updates that encourage the reader to follow and to speculate on the next
installment.