English 343: 001 / NCLC 343:001
Textual Media
Hypertext Critique 2
For this assignment, you will choose one of the assigned Interactive Fictions and write a hypertext analysis of approximately 1000 words, using at least five screens. Choose one aspect of the IF (or a tight constellation of related issues) for the analysis.
Some questions/issues to consider:
- Can an Interactive Fiction be considered literature?
- What is the effect of the reader becoming a character in IF?
- How is the storyworld structured? That is, what limitations has the author put in place?
- Consider Landow's discussion of reader disorientation; to what extent is disorientation required in IF?
This is an English course, so the analysis must have a thesis and provide support. Hypertext organization is looser than a printed text, but the analysis must have some organizational structure. Authors of print texts don't have much control over page breaks, which occur whenever a predetermined place is reached. Screens, however, are always created purposefully. HTML editors will never automatically create a "screen break." So you need to pay as much attention to your screens as you do to your paragraphs.
Grades will be based on the quality of the writing, strength of the thesis, support, organization, and use of the technology.