Cybertext

Origin

- + text, Perhaps popularised by Espen J. Aarseth's 1997 "Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature"; though "The Cybertext Corporation" existed in Arcata in the 1980s.

• w, Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature, Cybertext is a neologism derived from Norbert Wiener's book (and discipline) called Cybernetics, and subtitled Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine (1948)

Full definition of cybertext

Noun

1. (uncountable) text on a computer, particularly hypertext
• Cheryl J Fish, Yi-Chun Tricia Lin, Women's studies then and now, Cybertext may promote such a strong feeling of distance between readers, writers, and texts that referentiality to material conditions is downplayed. The very physical act of holding a book and turning its pages-in a sense, much more interactive than clicking a mouse...
2. (uncountable) mutually interactive, technologically enhanced text as described by Aareth.
• Eva Müller-Zettelmann, Margarete Rubik, Theory into poetry: new approaches to the lyric, Procedural and generative cybertext work undermines the concept of authorship and encourages the discussion about 'cyborg authorship'
3. (countable) A specific example of cybertext.
• Wita Wojtkowski, Systems development methods for databases, enterprise modeling, and workflow management, The sense of mystorysic opens up for academics the conceptual space of allowing students a singular journey through a cybertext.