Part 1 Create:

The Reader and the Writer of Electronic Literature

Electronic literature opened up a whole new way of reading. It puts literature into a digital form, allowing the writer to add things that the reader can interact with as they read. This genre of literature is meant to be read on an electronic device like a computer, smart phone or tablet. Electronic literature started as mostly blocks of texts with a few things added like animations, color, pictures and sound. The writer can add links, video, audio, and much more. The possibilities for the writer are almost endless, “electronic literature tests the boundaries of the literary and challenges us to re-think our assumptions of what literature can do and be’ (Hayles).

Pry is an interactive novella app made by Danny Cannizzaro and Samantha Gorman. The novella app allows the readers to pry open or pinch close to get more out of the story. When reading through Pry there is video and audio along with the text, something a normal book cannot provide.

Galatea is an interactive story that allows the reader to have a conversation with one of the characters. The story can be different for each reader because they have the ability to say and ask different things to this character. There is no single path to the story, giving each reader a unique experience. Tailspin is another interactive story, where the reader drags their mouse over swirls on the screen to get sections of the story. Every swirl has a few sentences to the story along with sounds and animations.

Twine is a website that allows writers to make stories with hyperlinks in them that the reader can click on to move through the story or even pick a path to go on. It gives the writer the choice if they want to make different directions the story can go. Electronic literature allows the writer to give the readers a more creative story with things like choices, animations and audio.

Part 2 Revise:

Notable People and Works

There are a number of notable authors, critics, and works associated with electronic literature. Michael Joyce’s Afternoon, a story is known as the first hypertext fiction, although this has been disputed,[11] and Stuart Moulthrop’s Victory Garden is another notable work of electronic literature.  Danny Cannizzaro and Samantha created an interactive novella app called Pry. They put video and audio into the text and also made it so the reader has to interact to get the whole story.

Other particularly interesting and noteworthy pieces of digital literature are Nightingale’s Playground by Andy Campbell and Judi Alston. This interactive fiction is a link between the original concepts of text based interactive fiction and gaming as we now it now. In Nightingale’s Playground the reader uses to their mouse to move around and narratives pop up to read. Gone Home is similar, the reader moves around the house looking for clue. Clicking on the write objects give the reader something to read and listen to.

Furthermore Shelley Jackon’s ‘Patchwork Girl’ is described as “an electronic fiction that manages to be at once highly original and intensely parasitic on its print predecessors.”[12] Based off ‘Frankenstein’s Monster’ by Mary Shelley, it gives the story a feminine twist with both the protagonist and Frankentein’s monster now being female. Throughout the hypertext, Jackson weaves together fragments of nodes in resemblance to the stitching together of Frankenstein’s monster’s limbs. Shelley Jackson wrote My Body a story with hyperlinks in the text. The beginning has a picture of her body with boxes on parts of the body the reader can click on the read her story. The hyperlinks allow the reader to pick what they want to read about.

Part 3 Work Cited:

“Gone Home: A Story Exploration Video Game.” Gone Home: A Story Exploration                   Video Game. The Fullbright Company, n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2015.                       <https://www.gonehomegame.com/>.

Hayles, Katherine. “Electronic Literature: What Is It?” Electronic Literature: What Is It?   N.p., 02 Jan. 2007. Web. 28 Feb. 2015. <https://eliterature.org/pad/elp.html#sec1>.

Jackson, Shelley. “My Body –a Wunderkammer.” My Body – a Wunderkammer. N.p., n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.                       <https://collection.eliterature.org/1/works/jackson__my_body_a_wunderkammer.h tml>.

“Portfolio.” Emily Shorts Interactive Storytelling. N.p., 20 Jan. 2007. Web. 02 Mar. 2015.                       <https://emshort.wordpress.com/my-work/>.

“PRY.” PRY. Tender Claw, n.d. Web. 02 Mar. 2015. <https://prynovella.com/>.

Part 4 Reflect:

I chose to add in more examples into the Notable People and Works section because I feel they didn’t give enough examples. Sense we have been looking at different kinds of electronic literatures I thought they needed to be put into the Wikipedia article. I chose Pry, My Body, Gone Home, and Galatea because they are good examples of electronic literature. If there are more examples on electronic literature then people can get a better idea of what it is and be able to go check it out for themselves.