Fiktionens nya rum - om litteraturen i interaktivitetens tidevarv

Abstract

"The New Rooms of Fiction - on Literature in the Age of Interactivity," by Karl-Erik Tallmo. This article deals with the new possibilities that hypertext and interactivity can offer fiction and other literary art forms, experimental poetry etc. Especially the possibility - or maybe necessity - to exploit meta-fictional features is discussed. The author of this article wrote and programmed Swedens first electronic novel in 1992, and he accounts for some of the methods for presenting random text patterns as well as randomized linking within his novel. He also writes about earlier non-linear or meta-literary experiments in print, such as Julio Cortázar's "Hopscotch", or John Barth's stories, as well as the concrete poetry of the 60's, where word permutation often was used, a technique easily transferred to the computer. A few text generators are described, such as Scott Pakin's "Complaint Letter Generator" on the WWW, and the article author's own "Treble Bob Major" for Macintosh Hypercard. The article also touches upon the problem when facts and fiction merge, aspects of authenticity and epistemology.