This electronic thesis or dissertation has been downloaded from the King’s Research Portal at https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/ The Liberator’s Labyrinth Stand-alone, Read-only Hypertext Fiction and the Nature of Authority in Literary & Hypertext Theory Brooker, Samuel Awarding institution: King's College London The copyright of this thesis rests with the author and no quotation from it or information derived from it may be published without proper acknowledgement. END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT Unless another licence is stated on the immediately following page this work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International licence. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ You are free to copy, distribute and transmit the work Under the following conditions: Attribution: You must attribute the work in the manner specified by the author (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work). 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Oct. 2021 THE LIBERATOR’S LABYRINTH Stand-alone, Read-only Hypertext Fiction and the Nature of Authority in Literary & Hypertext Theory By Sam Brooker 1337382 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY DEPARTMENT OF DIGITAL HUMANITIES FACULTY OF ARTS AND HUMANITIES KING’S COLLEGE, LONDON APRIL 2018 1 Abstract Theorists as diverse as Roland Barthes, Wolfgang Iser, and Stanley Fish have identified interpretation (the meaning derived from a fictional work by a reader) as distinct from the intentions of the aUthor. This dissertation explores a common claim made in the first wave of hypertext fiction criticism: that the existence of authored choices created greater levels of interpretative freedom for the reader than in cinematic, theatrical, or traditional print works. Drawing primarily on literary theory, bUt selectively sUpported by compUter and information science scholarship, this poststructuralist, antiauthorist position suggested that stand-alone, read-only hypertext systems could further the so-called “death of the author” when Used for literary pUrposes. Does the introdUction of an additional aUthored layer (in the form of hypertext markUp) really shift the balance of power between aUthor and reader, and if so in what direction? Using concepts first articulated by Isaiah Berlin, this dissertation argues that the theoretical discussion has hitherto been based on a distancing, “negative” conception of liberty, while practice within early networked computer systems favoured the more coercive form, which Berlin termed “positive”. This disjUnction highlights that an effective strategy for liberating knowledge in information science can have the inverse effect when applied to literary theory, despite sharing broadly compatible philosophical goals. The following study will foregroUnd the contradictions between these two concepts of liberty. Technology, not formal discoUrse represents the genesis of a new medium, bUt hasty theoretical consensUs led to an essentialism, even a formalism within hypertext fiction scholarship which confined intellectual horizons, a distortion which resonates today in scholarship around literary hypertext fiction and other interactive media. The second wave of criticism questioned empowerment on an empirical basis, but did not fully Undermine the first wave’s initial assumptions. Having oUtlined the argument in the introductory chapters, the twin genealogies of hypertext fiction will be explored in greater detail: literary theories of aUthorship in Chapter 3, hypertext in Chapter 4. The fifth chapter draws these strands together, demonstrating that the project of literary hypertext fiction is in fact at odds with the versions of liberty found in its progenitor theories, before the sixth chapter looks at how this contradiction continues to haunt contemporary experiments with interactive narrative. 2 Table of Contents ABSTRACT ......................................................................................................................... 2 TABLE OF CONTENTS ...................................................................................................... 3 TABLE OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................................... 7 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ......................................................................................... 10 1.1 WHY HYPERTEXT FICTION? ............................................................................................................... 16 1.2 METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................................. 18 1.2.1 Chapter 2: The Convergence Argument ........................................................................ 19 1.2.2 Chapter 3: Literature, Authority, Freedom ................................................................... 19 1.2.3 Chapter 4: Hypertext, Authority, Freedom ................................................................... 20 1.2.4 Chapter 5: Hypertext Fiction, Authority, Freedom ........................................................ 21 1.2.5 Chapter 6: The Convergence Argument Today ............................................................. 23 1.3 TERMS OF REFERENCE ..................................................................................................................... 24 1.3.1 Contact Languages ........................................................................................................ 25 1.3.2 Freedom and Authority ................................................................................................. 27 1.3.3 Choice ............................................................................................................................ 32 1.3.4 Hypertext ....................................................................................................................... 39 1.3.5 Hypertext fiction ........................................................................................................... 44 1.3.6 Language ....................................................................................................................... 48 1.4 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. 51 CHAPTER 2 A PROBLEMATIC CONVERGENCE .......................................................... 52 2.1 THE CONVERGENCE ARGUMENT ....................................................................................................... 52 2.2 CONVENTIONAL HYPERTEXT FICTION: THE REINSTATEMENT OF THE AUTHOR ............................................. 60 2.3 THE CONVERGENCE ARGUMENT: HYPERTEXT FICTION ........................................................................... 66 2.4 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. 70 3 CHAPTER 3 LITERATURE, AUTHORITY, FREEDOM .................................................... 73 3.1 MEANING AND AUTHORITY IN LITERARY THEORY .................................................................................. 73 3.2 MEANING AND AUTHORITY IN PROTO-HYPERTEXTUAL LITERATURE ........................................................... 84 3.3 CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................. 88 CHAPTER 4 HYPERTEXT, AUTHORITY, FREEDOM .................................................... 90 4.1 CODE AND CULTURE: NEGOTIATING AUTHORSHIP ................................................................................ 97 4.2 HISTORICAL GENEALOGY OF HYPERTEXT ........................................................................................... 102 4.2.1 Genealogy of Hypertext: Dictionary ............................................................................ 103 4.2.2 Genealogy of Hypertext: Encyclopaedia ..................................................................... 105 4.2.3 Genealogy of Hypertext: Otlet & Bush ........................................................................ 109 4.2.4 Genealogy of Hypertext: CyberneticS .......................................................................... 112 4.2.5 Genealogy of Hypertext: Counterculture .................................................................... 115 4.3 HYPERTEXT ................................................................................................................................. 117 4.3.1 Hypertext: A Language of RationaliSation ................................................................... 127 4.3.2 Hypertext: A Language of Control ............................................................................... 136 4.4 BEYOND HYPERTEXT ....................................................................................................................