Home » Reading & Literature » Postmodern Literature » Introduction to Reader Response Theory and Hypertext

Introduction to Reader Response Theory and Hypertext

© Jessica Laccetti

Mary Flanagan begins her timely essay with a warning that literary metaphors are inadequate in a multi-dimensional cyberspace. She emphasises that in the "one-dimensional space of a book's text, for example, the reader cannot physically interact with the text or 'enact' through the text. In cyberspace and in real space, however, actions taking place in networks have real impacts on human beings through multi-user interactions and even, say, e-commerce." With this in mind, then, what would one make of a hyperfiction beginning like this, (see fig.1), where the interaction of the reader has a very "real" impact on the development of the narrative?

Fig. 1 Jackie Craven, "Menu," In the Changing Room.

And what about a beginning like this (see fig.2)?

Fig. 2 M.D. Coverley "The Lacemaker," Madame de Lafayette Book of Hours, ed. Christy Sheffield Sanford.

In both these examples, Jackie Craven's In the Changing Room, and M.D. Coverley's addition to Christy Sheffield Sanford's Madame de Lafayette Book of Hours, the hyperfiction beginnings present the reader with a choice (or several) of how to proceed. In Craven's hyperfiction the reader may choose one of nine different paths to actively pursue while Coverley asks the reader to choose between two. The first example commands the reader, demanding her to, "click a face to follow a tale." Rather differently, Coverley's example gently addresses the reader, "shall you take the way of pins of the way of needles?" Both these hyperfictions literally point to the reader demanding "your" participation, subtly illustrating that without the interaction of the reader "the story no longer progresses," and then "the story is over." Linda Carroli and Josephine Wilson's *water always writes in *plural similarly requires the reader to participate. In this case the reader becomes not only a protagonist in the hyperfictions, like the listener in Craven's work or the co-creator in Coverley's piece, but a combination of protagonist, reader and writer. So, from the outset, the reader is required to assist in the creation of this hypernarrative by choosing which of four paths to begin with.

Fig. 3 Linda Carroli and Josephine Wilson, "index," Water Always Writes in Plural.

In this example the reader is not directed, as in Craven's hyperfiction, to choose a route into the hyperfiction but is assumed to know how to proceed. Each section of the sentence is colour-coded suggesting its independence from the sentence as a whole and perhaps also functioning as an allusion to the independence of each node from the hyperfiction as a whole. Lulled into a state of relaxation by the quiet melody of Fleur Elise, the reader feels free to choose her entrance into the text. The unpunctuated choices further illustrate the potential to begin the sentence and the reading from different points.

Figure 1

Figure 2

Figure 3

The copyright of the article Introduction to Reader Response Theory and Hypertext in Postmodern Literature is owned by . Permission to republish Introduction to Reader Response Theory and Hypertext in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.