Hypertextual fiction on the Internet : a structural and narratological analysis

Traditional texts and hypertexts are not fundamentally different - actually they have more in common than is commonly assumed and can thus be analysed well within the parameters of established categories of literary theory. Therefore, it is striking that quite a number of theoretical treatises on hypertext refer to the ‘revolutionary character’ of this kind of writing, the ‘amazing technological development’ that lies behind it, and the ‘almost miraculous convergence of postmodern literary concepts and hypertext’. With regard to these notions it is possible to criticise the fact that new technological developments were stressed unproportionally and that a systematic theoretical foundation as well as close analyses of hypertextual narratives are missing. Especially hypertexts on the internet have not been carefully analysed in this respect. Therefore, this dissertation aims at setting up a required theoretical frame for the analysis of fictional hypertexts on the internet. This goal will be reached on three levels. Firstly, the precise subject will be defined by discussing the genre of electronic literature and the existing terminology as well as by analysing commonly assumed characteristics of hypertext such as non-linearity, intertextuality, and links. Secondly, starting from an intermedial and interdisciplinary understanding of narrative as having been proposed by Nünning/Nünning (2002), the methods for the analysis of fictional hypertexts will be developed on the basis of narratological categories. Finally, the results will be summarised in a model then serving as the basis for the analyis of a body of primary texts which will be performed in the final chapter