Electronic literature

Electronic literature comprises literary works created for digital environments, where computational or networked features are essential to their form or experience.

Hypertext fiction: Fiction structured as linked digital text, allowing readers to choose paths through its narrative. Its branching links make navigation part of how a literary work unfolds.
Procedural generation: The use of algorithms to create content or structures automatically. Generative works use procedures to produce text beyond a fixed sequence.
Stochastic Texts: A 1959 computer-generated text experiment by Theo Lutz using words from Kafka's The Castle. It is an early example of literary language generated through a computer procedure.
Patchwork Girl: Shelley Jackson's 1995 hypertext novel, which reimagines Mary Shelley's Frankenstein through linked fragments. Its fractured structure makes linking central to its account of identity and authorship.
Digitization: The conversion of information or material into a digital format. A scanned or transcribed book is digitized, but need not use digital features as literature.
Interactive fiction: A form of digital storytelling in which readers issue commands or make choices that affect the experience. It turns reader input into a visible part of the literary encounter.
User interface: The means through which a person interacts with a digital system. Its controls and visual cues determine how actions become part of the work.
Computer poetry: Poetry composed or generated with computers, including experiments dating to the mid-twentieth century. It is a historical precursor to the broader range of electronic literary forms.
Victory Garden: Stuart Moulthrop's 1991 hypertext novel about war, media, and American life. Its interlinked paths model narrative choices against the backdrop of the Gulf War.
Digital publishing: The production and distribution of publications in digital formats. Electronic literature is defined by its form, not simply by digital delivery.

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Epistolary novelNarrower topic: Digital media allow documentary storytelling to incorporate emails, messages, and searchable archives.