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akademiskacademic quarterkvarterVolume 03. Fall 2011 • on the webGenre transgression in interactive worksClaus A. Foss Rosenstandis Associate Professor in Digital Media at the Departmentof Communication and Psychology, AalborgUniversity. His background is Master in Communication,Information Science and Psychology.His research specific includes innovation, projectmanagement, digital organizations, and pedagogy– and theoretic, methodic, technic, and organizationalaspects of digital media systems in general.MethodThe area of interest is genre transgression in interactive works. Sofar, this area of interest has been framed by the literature of BrendaLaurel (1991), Janet Murray (1997), Marie-Laure Ryan (2001), andEsben Aarseth (1997, 2005), whose important and well argued keypremise is that the user is a participator of interactive works. Due toan apparent lack of scientific publication taking this key premisefurther into a genre discussion in more recent years, this articleagrees with the above premise 1 .However, in order to add a new perspective on interactive works,a new multidisciplinary framing is suggested; a disciplinary transgressionbetween human computer interaction, scientific simulationtheory, software system architecture, and basic genre theory.The theoretical framing with academic disciplines independentof the area of interest involves lengthy explanations that go far beyondthe scope of this article. Therefore, the different disciplines areintroduced briefly in order to clarify the core points with regard tothe area of interest and research question: What characterizes genretransgression in interactive works?The work method of the article is to reintroduce an old establishedframing of basic genres (didactic, epic, and dramatic). PeterVolume03 258