O hipertexto como um novo espaço para a narrativa literária: análise de obras da hiperliteratura

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the phenomenon of Hypertext Fiction, a new form of artistic discourse which has been created specifically for the médium of electronic hypertext (whether on diskette, CD-ROM or the Internet). This study is preceeded by a theoretical analysis of three issues. First, the possibilities enabled by electronic publishing - such as the great facility to alter the content of a text or document, the remarkable capacity of information retrieval, the celerity of publication, the interactivity, the use of hypertext and non-linear writing, the use of multimedia - as well as the possible contributions that these resources bring to fiction and non-fiction texts. Second, the challenges that the contemporary world - involved in a period of "acceleration of the time-space relations", which favors quickness, ephemerality, dispersion and visual appeals, according to David Harvey, among other authors, a world that faces a period of proeminence of hypertext and Computer mediated communication, according to Pierre Lévy - 'present to the book, and namely to the literary discourse. This research also seeks to present the context in which the phenomenon of Hypertext Fiction was engendered, and - based in studies of authors such as Howard Becker, Jay David Bolter, Michael Joyce, George P. Landow, Pierre Lévy - point out the most distinctive tendencies of its discourse: non-linearity, self-reference, topographical writing, interactivity and the use of multimedia. These tendencies will form the grounds for the last part of the research: the analysis of four Hypertext Fictions: "its name was Penelope", by Judi Malloy, "Hegirascope 2", by Stuart Moulthrop, "Twilight, a Symphony", by Michael Joyce and "I have said nothing", by Jane Yellowlees Douglas. The conclusion points to the eífective emergence of a new art form, which allies elements of Literature and of other arts, and whose discourse reveals a disingagement of linear narra ti ve and a primacy of spatial elements.