This paper aims to analyse digital literature and its implications for the concept of literature<\/em> and its methodology of studying. Even though this new \u201edigital turn\u201d brings nowadays several instruments that help investigating new genres of discourse, researchers may ask themselves if literature expressed in a digital medium does not bring us back to old questions that were already stated, for example, by the reception theory or by a reader response literary theory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n First of all, we can understand digital literature in two distinct ways: as literary discourses expressed online or digitally, or as discourses produces by digital instruments. Both of them can bring an enhancement of the reader\u2019s contact through a visual dimension, but this step was already made by graphic novels, like Persepolis<\/em> by Marjane Satrapi. What is more is that the way interactive, digital literary texts are built emphasizes a cultural and societal aspect: the 21st century is centered on speech, not on the event, but at the same time conveys the idea of a technology of life, interpersonal relationships, and the virtual that replaces the experience. It is true that online “connects” individuals, but in what ways is it authentic? Here is also the question of the concept of “trust” in the social web, which can eventually reshape social reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Furthermore, a digital-born text may be subject to the so-called \u201cdistributed authorship\u201d, allowing multiple \u201cnarrating voices\u201d. A good example could be Zwirbler <\/em>(Twister<\/em>), a novel begun in 2010 by Gergely Teglasy, an Austrian-Hungarian writer. It is interesting because it is an example of user-generated content: it offered the possibility for different users to interfere \u2013 to make suggestions, comments on the original text, therefore having the chance to generate plot twists or changes. In this context, interesting is the genetic study of such a text born in the virtual environment, because we are talking about a fluidity of notions that remodel physical maps. And this includes fluctuating “existence” or the emergence \/ fluctuating online presence of “authors,” while dissolving the border between the public and the private.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, a dynamic, interactive application which incorporates programming languages and functions transforms readers in users and co-creators. Another question arises here: to which extent do then al platforms turn into performative stages where every user can \u201cexercise\u201d his or her \u201cwriting talent\u201d or just make a choice from a set of variables already thought by a programme? For example, DNA<\/em> is an interactive, Web-based novel which allows readers to select his\/her narrative path. In this case of machine-created texts, the freedom of the reader to interpret literature is limited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, this paper will argue if digital and interactive literature truly transgresses the borders of literature or just re-enacts debates that were already heated in the 20st century.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Digital and Interactive Literature \u2013 Transgressing the Borders of Literature? This paper aims to analyse digital literature and its implications for the concept of literature and its methodology of studying. Even though this new \u201edigital turn\u201d brings nowadays several instruments that help investigating new genres of discourse, researchers may ask themselves if literature expressed in … <\/p>\n