Abstract
This paper revisits and discusses the early American Electronic Literature from the birth of Interactive Fiction in the 1970s. Then, it evaluates the impacts of the 1980’s computer revolution on literary production along with the arising of a larger theoretical and critical interest in the relation literature vs. technology. To do so, it introduces the emergence of such scholarship through the history of the subgenre Hyperfiction from the creation of the textual software Storyspace (1987) by Michael Joyce and Jay Bolter, its acquisition by the Eastgate Systems and, as consequence, the emergence of the only cohesive and recognized literary corpus of the genre. Ultimately, this investigation exposes and analyzes the relationship between Interactive Fiction and Hyperfiction in the interstice when the former declined while the latter ascended to understand its reasons and impacts in the Electronic Literature scenario.
Key-words
American Electronic Literature; Interactive Fiction; Hyperfiction;
Storyspace
;
Eastgate Systems