English edit

Etymology edit

cyber- +‎ text, perhaps popularised by Espen J. Aarseth's 1997 "Cybertext: Perspectives on Ergodic Literature"; though "The Cybertext Corporation" existed in Arcata in the 1980s.[1]

Noun edit

cybertext (countable and uncountable, plural cybertexts)

  1. (countable, uncountable) Text on a computer, particularly hypertext
    • 1999, Wita Wojtkowski, Systems development methods for databases, enterprise modeling, and workflow management:
      The sense of mystory[sic] opens up for academics the conceptual space of allowing students a singular journey through a cybertext.
    • 2002, 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 []
    1. (uncountable) Mutually interactive, technologically enhanced text as described by Aarseth.
      • 2005, 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'

See also edit

References edit

  1. ^ Espen J. Aarseth (1997) 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)

Further reading edit