Abstract
The notions about labyrinths and the incipient orientating of the rhizome put forth by Jorge Luis Borges earned him a reputation as a forerunner of the World Wide Web. His metaphysics of the multiverse is clearly akin to later developments of this notion in literature. One of these literary manifestations of the rhizome as a modern maze draws on the myth of the Cretan labyrinth and on the short story “The Garden of Forking Paths” (1941) as literary sources. This is the case of the electronic novel “Victory Garden” designed by Stuart Moulthrop and released by Eastgate Systems in 1991. In this electronic piece of hyperfiction the traditional role of the reader transforms into a more engaging ‘prosumer.’ This hypertext makes use of the digital medium to portray a version of another version of the Classical myth, on a sort of second-scale literary revision of a classic. This fact, far from detaching the original connotations and characteristics of the ancient myth, feeds on it and on Borges’s own revision to present the rhizome along whose branches readers will find events, experiences and feelings about the first Gulf War of the years 1990-1991. The present study relies on the classical myth of the labyrinth and on Borges’s story to deepen into Moulthrop’s modern understanding of the world in his piece of e-literature: “Victory Garden” from an intermedial and literary lens.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Literary, Humanities, Comparative, Literature, Hyperfiction, Intermediality, Mazes
