Aims and Objectives

Primary Sources

Literature Review

Proposed method of study

Arguments

Reason for study

Glossary

Works Cited

Bibliography

Links

Literature Review

Much of the literature review was conducted on the internet.

I searched under four main headings
.
" Gender and hypertext fiction.
" Linear and non-linear literature.
" The death of the author.
" The four Primary Source texts.

As might be expected the web provides a plethora of material on hypertextuality, hyperfiction and non-linear texts.

Hypertext is by its nature decentred so it is possible to move away from systems such as colonialism and patriarchy which were dominant. (2) This makes possible different approaches to gender identity. It is suggested that in hyperfiction the hero may also be decentred allowing readers to form different constructions of the text

In hypertext the growing importance of the role of the reader (and the death of the author) also leads to greater freedom for the reader to construct the text. Sources discussing the 'death of the author' and the 'role of the reader' date from Barthes to the present day.

Writing is the neutral, composite, oblique space where our subject slips away, the negative where all identity is lost, starting with the very identity of the body writing. Barthes (3)

A number of sources also discuss identity within cyberspace; including gender identity and the nature of cyber culture etc. (4) Gender of course equally means the gender of males as well as females. .(5) Thorp quotes Foucult's belief that even the deepest sexual categories are social construction, including homosexuality. (6) Baudrillard argues that 'femininity' is projected onto women by men. (7) There is also the possible third category, in addition to that of male and female, that of transgendered individuals.

Writers discussing gender and identity in hyperfiction frequently quote from Patchwork Girl (8) as gender is a significant element of this hypertext fiction. The Patchwork girl says that she is often taken to be male. (9) In fact parts of two men and some animals were used in her creation.

There are numerous references to Moulthrop's hyperfiction Victory Garden which is described as a 'polyphonic novel' which appears to contain a number of elements related to gender and sexuality and a number of diverse characters. It is suggested that the identity of the characters changes depending upon the links made by the reader. (10) One character (in Victory Garden) rejects sexual experience because it 'implies the effacement of her independent subjectivity'.

Because of the operation of dualistic thinking sex, sexuality and gender are linked to a number of other aspects of personality, 'gender-differentiated pair(s) of characteristics' (11) such as aggression, a 'male' characteristic or intuitiveness, a 'female' characteristic. Gender is seen at one pole as a natural consequence of sex and at the other as a social construction which may be seen to serves the interest of patriarchy. Cixous says that men, in order to serve their interests have created in women 'an antinarcissism' which shuts women off from themselves and each other. (12)

Views of gender can vary between two poles: either a central core of individual identity or an idea which is being superseded by social change and technological advance which allows for transsexuality, cloning and cyberspace. It is therefore to be expected that the primary source texts will show changing attitudes to gender.

If gender is constructed through the interaction (essentially sexual interaction) (13) between people then gender identity within a text will also be evident in the interaction of the characters.