Cybertext Poetics: The Critical Landscape of New Media Literary Theory

Equally interested in what is and what could be, Cybertext Poetics combines ludology and cybertext theory to solve persistent problems and introduce paradigm changes in the fields of literary theory, narratology, game studies, and digital media. The book first integrates theories of print and digital literature within a more comprehensive theory capable of coming to terms with the ever-widening media varieties of literary expression, and then expands narratology far beyond its current confines resulting in multiple new possibilities for both interactive and non-interactive narratives. By focusing on a cultural mode of expression that is formally, cognitively, affectively, socially, aesthetically, ethically and rhetorically different from narratives and stories, Cybertext Poetics constructs a ludological basis for comparative game studies, shows the importance of game studies to the understanding of digital media, and argues for a plurality of transmedial ecologies.

Markku Eskelinen is an independent scholar, experimental author, and according to The Review of Contemporary Fiction "easily the most iconoclastic figure on the Finnish literary scene." He is also one of the founding editors of Game Studies, the international journal of computer game research, and the series of Cybertext Yearbooks.