From Page to Screen - WRAP: Warwick Research Archive Portal ...

and entertainment use but as a site of cultural and especially literary production, and any
form of electronic literature challenges readers' habitual processes simply by being in
electronic form. Most readers will come to a text with a set of expectations and
conventions acquired in contact with the printed word, and while these in print­
experiments are challenged directly from within the medium, hypertext literature
challenges them indirectly by forcing readers to develop a new set ofconventions for the
new medium. Secondly, the medium is in itself very flexible and allows readers to alter
(comment on, add to, annotate or delete) the text in a manner that is in appearance and
in status indistinguishable from the 'original', thereby not so much reversing, but
undermining the author - reader hierarchy present in print. Furthermore more flexible
distributions systems (digital text can be copied withgreat ease and a computer network
like the internet makes worldwide distribution possible) mean that these altered texts
can be made available to a wide audience. And lastly, and most importantly, it has been
argued that hypertext, even ifnot physically altered by the reader, invites a greater degree
of active participation through its network structure; it is perceived to offer a greater
element of choice, and structures that allow readers to have a more direct influence on
the construction oftext and narrative.
The promise of interactivity is one of the most frequently discussed and possibly most
important features of electronic writing. It is, however, not a term exclusive to hypertext
theory, but is used both in sociology and in computer technology (albeit with slightly
different meanings) and has lately become a common word in a great number ofcontexts
where the real or perceived influence of audiences / reading publics / consumers on
certain activities or products needs to be stressed. After a look at why, especially in
advertising, it has become such a ubiquitous, though often rather undefined word, I will
look at more specific contexts ofinteractive literature and attempts to define both terms
and its consequences on forms ofliterature.
3.1: TheTemptationofInteractivity
The word "interactive" has been employed to promote a wide range of products.
Exploiting the apparently existing desire in our society not just to passively consume but
to be creative, the promise ofinteractivity is applied to everything from "create your own
Chapter 3 -page 88