The textual genres of Greek electronic literature

Electronic literature is expanding worldwide and reveals innovative circumstances in contemporary literary production. The major genres of the canon - associated with print literature - have been transferred in a purely digital environment, and in the same time new genres are emerging (Hayles 2008: 5). While in English literary production we find plenty of digital texts, contemporary Greek literature has to show only a few examples. As a result, this proposal focuses on the categorization of prose literary electronic genres that have been produced in modern Greek electronic literature, the presentation of a characteristic sample of each one and their exemplary interpretation through the following axes: the interrelation of author and reader, the narrative techniques and the multimodality of the text¹.

On Greek literary production the majority of texts are digitized and no born-digital. Generally, Greek e-literature has an hybrid form because it is based a lot on the digitalization of literature also published in traditional print format and on works produced exclusively digitally, that employ the potentials of programmed media (Koskimaa).

On the first category of digitized text, we can present one of the first complete versions of digitized and published novel, Giannis Farsari’s Johnnie Society (2009)², which is predestined to be read online. In collective works, where the plot was continued and shaped by readers online, we can classify Loukia Rikaki’s creation, entitled Kratise me (2006), which also inspired a movie, but now it exists only in print format.

In the second category of digitally born genres, we classify short stories, the most represented digital literary genre among others in Greece during the last years given the easy access of creators in blogs or in online literary competitions (some relevant websites are: Literature.gr, Open Library, Frear etc.). The digital production of short stories has been especially developed in the blog “Bonsai Stories”, a part of Planodion magazine³ , which constitutes a main source of short stories for our survey, given the systematic production of this genre digitally since 2014. Of course, many of these works that are initially created and published electronically, have been traditionally published afterward. In the category of digital works that made their appearance through Facebook, is classified the collection of short stories by Chrysostomos Tsaprailis entitled Pagan Doctrines of the Thessalian province⁴ , horror short stories lined with the folklore mantle of local traditions, started online on the author's Facebook profile (2014) and continue until today.

Among others digital genres, only the novel Planet Prespa (2002)⁵ written by Sofia Nikolaidou belongs so far to modern Greek hypertext. Beyond the categorization of Greek electronic literary text, our survey will focus on the analysis and interpretation of digitally born texts: indicative short stories written on Planodion magazine and on Facebook, which reveal the main targets of our survey, and the hypertext Planet Prespa.

The intermediation of digital literature, due to the transition of literary texts from page to screen, multiply the possibilities of the text according to the principles of the medium (Hayles 2008: 40-45). The analysis of digital prose texts, will be based on narrative techniques, given their chronotopic complexity. The space of the digital text is the flickering screen of the electronic device, the cyberspace but also the locus in which the plot of the text we are reading is placed. The time is influenced by the chronic placement of the text but also by the stay of each reader on the relevant webpage (Δημητρούλια- Τικτοπούλου 2015: 88). So, the plot of the digital work, with narrative entanglements and chronotopic shifts, loses the linearity of the narrative and unfolds through branching narrative paths, digitally generated through hyperlinks (especially in hypertext).

Another interpretation key of our survey is the multimodal character of digital prose texts. The structure of the digital literary text, on the basis of visual - mainly - but also audio data, forms a “ multimodal landscape” (Page). Mainly visual material that accompanies the digital texts consists of either graphics or image/paintings (Hayles 2007), which represent the content of the work in an explanatory way, or reinterpret the text, which becomes a work destined not only to be read but also to be seen ("texte à voir") (Bootz 2006). So, digital (short) texts are characterized by a double visual materiality, since they are represented on the computer or mobile screen and they also combine the text with the image, visualizing their content (Hayles 2005:118).

All the above narrative and multimodal characteristics are combined on hypertexts, such as Planet Prespa. The reader by entering hypertext’s world, similar to a palimpsest, becomes an aspiring “player” (Aarseth 1997: 4), because he is called to choose the hyperlink from which he will begin reading the non-linear narrative and to interact with the multiple layers that compose it (Pressman 2014: 118-119). Each page of the hypertext forms a landscape, characterized by the layering of textual, visual and audio material (Hayles 2005: 54), the conjunction of which constitutes a special interface which determines the reception of the work by the reader (Manovich 2001: 83-86).

As far as the reader is concerned, the third axe of our analysis, his ability to explore and discover the digital text, turns him into a potential creator, while he interacts with the author and the text (Clément 1998: 2). The hypertext, as mentioned above, offers a huge degree of interactivity, because the reader can choose at any time how the story will be told (Hayles 2007), realizing the ergodic character of electronic literature (Aarseth 1997: 1-4). Also, in other types of electronic literary production, such as collective writing of Rikaki’s Kratise me, the reader actually becomes a creator, as he completes the plot in his own way.

Consequently, via this proposal we will categorize digitized and digitally born prose literary genres and present their main characteristic, revealing a field on Greek literary production, that remains unexplored yet.