A Theory for Literature (Created for the World Wide Web, E-Mail, Chat Spaces, Databases, and Other Electronic Technologies)

Beginning with Michael Joyce's seminal hypertext, 'afternoon, a story', and moving to the recent webtext by Kathleen Yancey and Michael Spooner, 'Not (Necessarily) a Cosmic Convergence', Dene Grigar provides examples of the new literary writing generated by electronic non-print technologies, such as World Wide Web, MOOs, databases, and other types of computer-generated media, and discusses the theories that have emerged to explain them. Specifically, she looks at theories of hypertext, posited by Jay David Bolter, George Landow, Johndan Johnson-Eilola; of synchronous or real-time writing, found in MOOs and MUDs, developed by Cynthia Haynes and Jan Rune Holmevik, Mick Doherty, and Sandye Thompson; and of online writing and webtexts, articulated by John Barber, Victor Vitanza, and others. Although electronic writing remains at the early stages of development in this late age of print (Bolter 2) and early age of electronic writing (Barber and Grigar 12), it is fast becoming an important medium of literary expression. By bringing these examples and ideas together, the author suggests some guidelines for understanding and discussing electronic writing that will serve as the starting point for the development of an overarching literary theory for these emergent literary texts.