Cybertext Poetics: The Critical Landscape of New Media Literary Theory

The book uses cybertext theory and ludology to solve several persistent problems in the fields of literary theory, narratology, game studies, and digital media. Equally interested in what is and what could be, "Cybertext Poetics" combines ludology and cybertext theory to solve persistent problems and introduce paradigm changes in the fields of literary theory, narratology, game studies, and digital media. The book first integrates theories of print and digital literature within a more comprehensive theory capable of coming to terms with the ever-widening media varieties of literary expression, and then expands narratology far beyond its current confines resulting in multiple new possibilities for both interactive and non-interactive narratives. By focusing on a cultural mode of expression that is formally, cognitively, affectively, socially, aesthetically, ethically and rhetorically different from narratives and stories, "Cybertext Poetics" constructs a ludological basis for comparative game studies, shows the importance of game studies to the understanding of digital media, and argues for a plurality of transmedial ecologies. "International Texts in Critical Media Aesthetics" provides a platform for new scholarship in the area of electronic art and literature, to be presented from the perspective of critical aesthetics - philosophical positions dedicated to the problem of how and whether technology as a medium for art and literature simultaneously makes reference to and differs from the use of more traditional media and methods for these expressive practices.