Hold the Light conference 2014 proposal

Hold the Light ELO conference 2014

My proposal has been accepted!!!

Stuart Moulthrop:Dear Ms. Kuchina:

We are happy to inform you that your proposal has been accepted for “Hold the Light,” the 2014 conference of the Electronic Literature Organization. 

Narrative hierarchy in computer-mediated fiction: implied recipient model

Fictional narration has complex communicative structure that consists of two basic elements: author’s and narrator’s communication. The third element of this structure is optional: it appears when fiction characters approve themselves as narrative instances. All of these communicative levels have their own senders and recipients. Narrative recipient contains two parts of its structure. On the one hand it is virtual or implied addressee, someone who is supposed or desirable as a recipient of this particular narrative. On the other hand it is real addressee that can be difficult to identify or foresee by the author. This implied recipient does not exist in the reality and its model is based just on fiction text structure. Significant markers of this implied recipient model can be found in the story itself, they are the elements of language codes, ideology and esthetic.

Virtual or implied recipient model differs when we speak about computer-mediated fiction. In contrast to written novels computer-mediated fiction has a collective of authors with more complex narrating opportunities and potential. In electronic literature recipient participates in narrative perception, modelling and mapping the text of e-novel. Electronic narrative does not exist without recipient interaction. All kinds of narratives have implicit signs of recipient language, cultural, ideological or esthetic competence. Obviously presented narrative recipient determines the level of obviousness for narrator, because narrator shapes the image of recipient in the fiction text. Usually narrator leaves the signs of his/her appeal to reader such as attempts to foresee and forestall positive or negative reader’s reaction, critical opinion and so on (implied recipient is assumed as a conversation partner).

The research focuses on the narrative recipient implicit appeal that determines specific way of narration in digital novel. This implicit appeal can be identified with the help of significant language, epistemic, ethic and social codes. All of these features have their verbal and non-verbal explication in digital fiction and also they are to be identified and reconstructed by the recipient. My analysis of the “Vniverse” by S. Stricland, C. Lawson Jaramillo, “A show of hands” by M.C. Marino and “Whereabouts” by O. Kruglanski – presented by a theoretical mapping of narrative communicative structure as an emergent vector of narratology – promises to give insights into linguistic, ethical and epistemological functions of implied recipient model in computer-mediated fiction.