These Waves of Memories: A Hyperfiction by Caitlin Fisher

The web-based ‘hypermedia novella’ These Waves of Girls by Caitlin Fisher won the first prize in the fiction category awarded by the Electronic Literature Organization in 2001. In this article I’ll take a closer look on some of the aspects of this work, a confessional autobiography about a girl coming to terms with her lesbian identity. The article is structured around a set of relations: the relation between the critic and the work; textual and audio-visual representation; personal and social relations; hypertextual structure and autobiographical, unreliable narration. These Waves is a class-room example of the so-called associative hypertext. The hypertextual structure is also closely linked to the problematics of autobiographical narration.. As readers we get to ponder about the nature of remembering, of telling stories about one’s life. One of the genuine accomplishments of Fisher’s work is to bring forth these questions in a tangible, and still discreet, way.

(Source: author's abstract).