The right of Scott Rettberg to be identified as Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published in 2019 by Polity Press

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ISBN-13: 978-1-5095-1681-0

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Rettberg, Scott, author.
Title: Electronic literature / Scott Rettberg.
Description: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA, USA : Polity Press, 2018. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018019604 (print) | LCCN 2018025325 (ebook) | ISBN 9781509516810 (Epub) | ISBN 9781509516773 (hardback) | ISBN 9781509516780 (pbk.)
Subjects: LCSH: Hypertext literature. | Electronic publications. | Interactive multimedia. | Literature and the Internet. | Literature and technology.
Classification: LCC PN56.I64 (ebook) | LCC PN56.I64 R48 2018 (print) | DDC 802.85--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018019604

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Acknowledgments

Segments of Chapter 2, “Combinatory Poetics,” were adapted from “Dada Redux: Elements of Dadaist Practice in Contemporary Electronic Literature” by Scott Rettberg in Fibreculture 11 (2008).

Segments of Chapter 3, “Hypertext Fiction,” were adapted from Destination Unknown: Experiments in the Network Novel by Scott Rettberg, PhD dissertation, University of Cincinnati, 2002; “Narrative and Digital Media” by Scott Rettberg and Jill Walker Rettberg in Teaching Narrative Theory, David Herman, Brian McHale, James Phelan, eds, Modern Language Association, 2010; “The American Hypertext Novel and Whatever Became of It?” and “Post-Hyperfiction: Practices in Digital Textuality” by Scott Rettberg in Interactive Digital Narrative: History, Theory, and Practice, Hartmut Koenitz, Gabriele Ferri, Mads Haahr, Diğdem Sezen, Tonguç İbrahim Sezen, eds, Routledge, 2015.

Segments of Chapter 5, “Kinetic Poetry,” were adapted from “Bokstaver i begevelser” [“Letters in Space, At Play”] by Scott Rettberg, published in Norwegian in Vagant 2011:1.

Segments of Chapter 6, “Network Writing” were adapted from “All Together Now: Hypertext, Collective Narratives, and Online Collective Knowledge Communities” in New Narratives: Stories and Storytelling in the Digital Age, Ruth Page, and Browen Thomas, eds, University of Nebraska Press, 2011.

A short segment of Chapter 7 was adapted from the interview “Cavewriting” by Scott Rettberg, Jill Walker, Noah Wardrip-Fruin, Robert Coover, and Josh Carroll in The Iowa Review Web (July 2006).

I gratefully acknowledge the support of the Meltzer Research Fund, the University of Bergen, Brown University, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and particularly John Cayley and Nick Montfort, my hosts at Brown and MIT during my 2017 sabbatical when the bulk of this book was written.

Thanks to all my friends, collaborators, and colleagues in the Electronic Literature Organization and in the field of electronic literature, who are too many to name individually. It is fair to say that during the past two decades, my professional and social lives have become indistinguishable. I could never have hoped to find more creative, supportive, dedicated, intelligent, funny, and talented people in my life. The best way I can thank them is to note that most of their names can found in the pages of this book. Finally, thanks to my students and colleagues in the University of Bergen Digital Culture program and the Bergen Electronic Literature Research Group.