Hyperfiction and Reading, with Examples of Electronic Processing of Grimms’ Fairy Tales

• Main Authors: Vladimira Velički, Damir Velički
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Imprensa da Universidade de Coimbra 2018-08-01
• Series: MatLit : Materialidades da Literatura
• Subjects: hiperfiction; reading; narration; author; Grimms' fairy-tales
• Online Access: https://impactum-journals.uc.pt/matlit/article/view/5257

Hypertext is suitable for conducting literary experiments. It deconstructs the temporal sequence of narration, and lessens the author’s authority. The author of hyperfiction, in some way, loses control over how his or her work influences the reader. On the other hand, the belief that the reader of hyperfiction is at the same time its author, for he or she chooses which way to navigate the text, which hyperlinks to mark and in this manner create a new text, can be challenged. Using as its basis the networked and the non-networked versions of some Grimms’ fairy tales, this paper presents the results of the study, which was conducted with the aim of determining whether and how works of hyperfiction will change ways of reading, or even thinking, or, on the contrary, whether traditional ways of thinking and reading, and their sequence (beginning, middle, end) are so deeply rooted in our processing that they cannot be changed.