Possible Worlds of Hypertext Fiction

The Possible Worlds of Hypertext Fiction provides an innovative and comprehensive methodology for the analysis of Storyspace hypertext fiction. The book begins by examining the development of hypertext theory from the enthusiastic claims about the narrative capabilities that accompanied the first-wave to the analytical focus of the second. Drawing on second-wave conclusions about the self-reflexivity of the medium as well as the narrative devices that many Storyspace works contain, Bell convincingly argues that Possible Worlds Theory offers an appropriate framework with which to analyse them. Providing four comprehensive illustrative examples and an ongoing theoretical exposition, the book guides the reader through the approach while simultaneously supplementing and amending Possible Worlds Theory for its application for hypertext fiction. The book therefore provides a systematic and replicable analytical method that can be used by other analysts and offers a comprehensive and timely body of hypertext fiction criticism as well as an elucidation and critique of Possible Worlds Theory. In addition to scholars of electronic literature, including undergraduate and postgraduate students, this book should appeal to researchers working in the areas of narrative theory and stylistics.