Cybertext Poetics: The Critical Landscape of New Media Literary Theory

Cybertext Poetics has three different points of departure: theoretical, strategic, and empirical. It uses ludology and modified cybertext theory as a cross-disciplinary perspective to solve four persistent and strategically chosen problems in four separate, yet interconnected fields: literary theory, narratology, game studies, and digital media.[1] The problems in the first three fields stem from the same root: hegemonic theories are based on a subset of possible media behaviors that is far too limited, and this limitation seriously undermines their explanatory and analytical power. The cumulative effects of this lack also obscure our understanding of transmediality, media ecology, and digital media. An example may perhaps help demonstrate what I mean.