Electronic literature, also called digital literature, is a type of writing that uses special features of digital tools, such as interactivity, using different types of media, or computer-generated text. These works are usually read on digital devices like computers, tablets, and phones. They are hard to print or cannot be printed at all because some important parts of the work cannot be copied onto paper.
The first computer-based literary works, made in the 1950s, were programs that created poems or stories, now known as generative literature. In the 1960s, poets started using computers for creative writing, and the first simple text-based games were developed. Interactive fiction became a popular form in the late 1970s and 1980s, and by the 2000s, many people online were writing and sharing this type of work. In the 1980s and 1990s, hypertext fiction began to appear, first on floppy disks and later on the internet. These stories let readers click on links to move between pages. In the 2000s, digital poetry became popular, often using animation, pictures, and interactive features. In the 2010s and 2020s, electronic literature expanded to social media, creating new forms like Instapoetry or Twitterature, as well as practices like netprov. While some online writing, like creepypasta or fan fiction, is not always considered electronic literature (because it can be printed and read on paper), others argue these works should be included because they depend on online communities and are created for the internet.
Many studies have been done about electronic literature. In 1999, the Electronic Literature Organization was created to help share and study this field through events and conferences. One major challenge in studying electronic literature is preserving it, because the software or hardware needed to read it may stop working over time. Also, electronic literature is not part of traditional publishing, so it does not have ISBN numbers and is not listed in library catalogs. This has led to the creation of special archives and projects to record and store these works.
Definitions
The literary critic and professor N. Katherine Hayles describes electronic literature as works that are created for computers and are usually read on them. She explains that this does not include e-books or printed books that are turned into digital versions.
The Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) says electronic literature includes works that have important literary qualities and use the special features of computers, whether they are standalone or connected to the internet. This can include hypertext fiction, where readers click on links to choose their path through a story, animated poetry (also called kinetic poetry), digital poetry that uses movement or game-like features, literary chatbots, computer-generated stories or poems, art installations with literary elements, interactive fiction, and literary uses of social media.
For example, hypertext fiction is a story made up of text pieces called lexias that are connected by links. In digital poetry, the words in a poem may move on the screen or involve interactive elements. Generative literature uses a single work to create many different poems or stories. Before the early 2000s, electronic literature was often published on floppy disks, CD-ROMs, online literary journals, or websites. Since around 2010, social media genres like Instapoetry, Twitterature, and netprov have been considered part of electronic literature. The literary critic Leonardo Flores calls these "third generation" electronic literature, following earlier generations of works before the internet and web-based works. Flores includes social media posts with literary qualities, even if the creators do not see them as literature. Fan fiction and creepypasta have also been studied as examples of electronic literature.
Definitions of electronic literature are debated. Some strict definitions are criticized for leaving out valuable works, while others are too vague to be helpful. One definition says electronic literature is "a construction whose literary aesthetics emerge from computation" or "a work that could only exist in the digital space." Scott Rettberg, author of Electronic Literature, argues that a broad definition is useful because it can include new genres as new platforms and forms of literature develop. Carolyn Handler Miller describes electronic literature as nonlinear and non-chronological, where users experience and help create the story, and where different events and outcomes are possible.
History
Experts have studied many early examples of electronic literature before computers were common. These include the ancient Chinese book I Ching, John Clark's mechanical Latin Verse Machine (1830–1843), and the Dadaist movement's cut-up technique. Print novels like Julio Cortázar's Hopscotch (1963) and Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire (1962) are examples of print works that came before electronic literature.
In 1952, British computer scientist Christopher Strachey created a love letter generator for the Manchester Mark 1 computer. This program created short love letters and is an example of generative poetry. The original code is lost, but Nick Montfort, a digital poet and scholar, recreated it based on remaining records. This version can be viewed in a web browser.
In 1959, German computer scientist Theo Lutz wrote Stochastic Texts, a program for the Z22 computer. It used random sentences based on chapter titles and subjects from Franz Kafka's novel The Castle. Lutz's work is considered an early example of electronic literature and a precursor to AI-generated writing. German philosopher Hannes Bajohr described Stochastic Texts as an example of the "sequential paradigm" in generative literature, which focuses on rule-based logic rather than human intuition.
The 1960s were a time of literary experimentation, with strong connections between art, technology, and poetry. In 1961, Italian poet Nanni Balestrini created Tape Mark I on an IBM 7070 computer. The poem was published in a journal edited by Umberto Eco and Bruno Munari, making it the first Italian work of electronic literature. In 1961, R. M. Worthy and colleagues at Librascope created Auto-Beatnik, a program that generated poems on an LGP-30 computer to mimic Beat poetry.
In 1964–66, Mabel Addis and William McKay created The Sumerian Game, a text-based narrative game that may have been the first narrative computer game. It was not widely distributed. In 1966, Joseph Weizenbaum programmed the chatbot ELIZA, creating a new genre of conversational literary works. During this decade, Ted Nelson coined the terms "hypertext" and "hypermedia."
Writers and artists continued to combine art, technology, and literature. In 1970, Norwegian artists Irma Salo Jæger, Sigurd Berge, and Jan Erik Vold created Blikk, an installation that combined sound, poetry, and kinetic sculptures. The work was recreated in 2022 and is now part of the Norwegian National Museum's collection.
In the 1970s, text adventure games, now called interactive fiction, became popular. In 1975–76, Will Crowther created Adventure (also known as Colossal Cave Adventure), a game where players made choices that led to different outcomes. It is often called the first work of interactive fiction, though some argue earlier works like SHRDLU or The Sumerian Game were important precursors. Adventure had a major cultural impact and inspired games like Zork (1977).
With the rise of personal computers, interactive fiction became a commercial success. Companies like Infocom hired writers and programmers to create text adventure games. Veronika Megler, who wrote The Hobbit video game in 1982, described this in an interview with The Guardian.
In the 1980s, hypertext fiction and digital poetry were explored in separate communities. In Canada, poet Bp Nichol published First Screening: Computer Poems in 1984. In the U.S., Judy Malloy published Uncle Roger on The WELL in 1986/87. At the ACM Hypertext conference in 1987, Michael Joyce's afternoon, a story was demonstrated. Eastgate Systems later published this work.
In France, digital literature was linked to the Oulipo movement, with poetry being more central than narrative works in the U.S. In 1981, Portuguese author Pedro Barbosa published THE ALAMO, claiming that computationally generated works could be literary.
Digital artists also created works with strong literary elements. In 1988, Australian artist Jeffrey Shaw and Dirk Groeneveld created The Legible City, an installation where visitors rode a stationary bicycle through a simulated city displayed as computer-generated text.
In the early 1990s, the "Storyspace school" in the U.S. used Storyspace, a hypertext authoring tool developed by Jay David Bolter and Michael Joyce. Eastgate Systems, which bought Storyspace in 1990, became a major publisher of hypertext fiction before the web became common. Eastgate continues to maintain and update Storyspace today.
Scholarship
Many books have been written about the history of electronic literature and its different types. Scott Rettberg's book Electronic Literature gives a general overview, while other books focus on specific types or time periods, such as Chris Funkhouser's Prehistoric Digital Poetry and Astrid Ensslin's Pre-web Digital Publishing and the Lore of Electronic Literature.
As explained earlier in the section on definitions, literary critic Leonardo Flores suggests dividing electronic literature into three generations. The first generation includes works made before the internet, the second uses the internet, and the third uses social media, web tools, and mobile devices. However, not all works fit neatly into these groups. Spencer Jordan points out that a work like The Unknown does not clearly belong to either the second or third generation.
Digital literature often requires users to explore the text through digital tools, making the medium itself part of the experience. Espen J. Aarseth wrote in his book Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature that readers can explore, get lost, and find hidden paths in these texts through the structure of the text itself. He defines "ergodic literature" as literature where "some effort is needed for the reader to move through the text." George Landow explains that following links in hypertext blends the traditional roles of reader and writer, as the reader helps shape the text by choosing which links to follow.
Astrid Ensslin and Alice Bell note that electronic literature can include contradictions that are different from print literature. They mention examples such as afternoon, a story (a car accident that may or may not happen), Victory Garden (a character who both dies and lives), and Patchwork Girl (a character who is real or imagined). Plot details, emotions, and character traits can change depending on the path a reader takes. J Yellowlees Douglas provides an early example in Michael Joyce's 1991 hypertext story WOE, where different characters fall in love based on the reader's choices. When readers encounter the same part of a text (called a "node" or "lexia") in different contexts, it can feel like the information changes depending on where the reader came from, as J Yellowlees Douglas explains in The Election of 1912 by Mark Bernstein and Erin Sweeney.
Translation and global perspectives
Translating electronic literature must include understanding how it is created using computer code.
Electronic literature is available worldwide. The 2020 Electronic Literature Collection Volume 4 included 132 works from 42 different countries, written in 31 languages. These works can be found in the category "Electronic literature works by country."
Chinese online literature has a long history and is widely read. However, it differs from electronic literature because it focuses on being published online and allows interaction between readers and writers, rather than using features like interactivity, text generation, or animation. Academic Guobin Yang described Chinese internet literature as "all writings on the internet that are considered literature by the people who write or read them." Academic Michel Hockx explained that Chinese internet literature includes works that are either part of traditional literary forms or new types of writing, and these works are created specifically for online publication and are meant to be read on a screen. An example of Chinese electronic literature that uses digital features is Shan Shui, a 2014 work that combines automatically generated poetry with images.
Preservation and archiving
Electronic literature is created to be read on computers using specific software, as Jessica Pressman explains. Analyzing electronic literature requires readers and critics to study the media and technology involved. However, these works can become difficult to read when the software or technology they were designed for is no longer used. This challenge has made it harder for electronic literature to develop traditions similar to those found in printed books, as noted by literary critic N. Katherine Hayles.
Several groups work to preserve electronic literature. The UK-based Digital Preservation Coalition focuses on saving digital resources in general. The Electronic Literature Organization's PAD initiative provides guidance on how to plan for the future when creating and publishing electronic literature, including moving works from outdated platforms to modern technology. The British Library archives winners of the New Media Writing Prize in the UK Web Archive. NEXT, managed by Dene Grigar for the Electronic Literature Organization, stores source files and documentation for many electronic literature and digital writing works. The Electronic Literature Knowledge Base (ELMCIP) is a research tool containing 3,875 records of creative works as of February 11, 2024. The Electronic Literature Directory focuses on peer-reviewed descriptions or reviews of works. The Multilingual African Electronic Literature Database & African Diasporic Electronic Literature Database (MAELD & ADELD) is a project centered on the African region. The Maryland Institute for Technologies in the Humanities and the Electronic Literature Lab at Washington State University Vancouver work to document and preserve electronic literature and hypermedia. In Canada, the Laboratory NT2 hosts research and a database on electronic literature and digital art.
The Electronic Literature Collection is a series of anthologies published by the Electronic Literature Organization, available on CD/DVD and online. This is another way to ensure electronic literature remains accessible for future generations.
Major awards
Annual awards for electronic literature include the Electronic Literature Organization awards and the New Media Writing Prize.
Previous awards included the trAce-Alt X Competition. In 1998, two works won the 1,000 English pound prize: The Unknown by William Gillespie; Scott Rettberg; Dirk Stratton and Rice by Jenny Weight (Australia). Three sites received Honorable Mentions: Kokura by Mary-Kim Arnold, * by Michael Atavar, and water always writes in plural by Linda Carroli and Josephine Wilson. In 2001, Lexia to Perplexia by Talan Memmott won the trAce/Alt-X New Media Writing Award. In 2004, the prize had four major categories for articles about hypertext (reviews, opinion, and editor's choice). The only multimedia work mentioned was Postcards From Writing* by Sally Prior.