Intermediality and Digital Fiction

From hypertext to app fiction, intermediality has been a key concept in the 40-year-or-so evolution of digital fiction. A good case in point is hypertext fiction which straddles two distinct media: print-based literature and digital environment. The goal of the following chapter is to summarize and synthesize information derived from primary and secondary sources with a view to exploring digital fiction as inherently intermedial, that is, generated at the nexus of multiple media. I discuss hypertext, hypermedia, cybertext, interactive fiction, network fiction, and small-screen fiction, and indicate what role and function intermediality has played in their construction and consumption. To achieve that goal, I first employ theories and typologies of major literature and media scholars to map out my own conceptual territory and subsequently reference established and renowned theoreticians and practitioners of digital fiction.