Introduction

As we are going to study a hypertext fiction, Damascene, a tale for computers and compasses, it seems a good idea to take a brief look to hypertext history, so that we can fully understand the deep changes they introduced in our reading uses. For the last ten years, as the Internet access spread throughout the world, the number of hypertext fictions increased as well, as more and more authors chose a virtual environment to provide their texts of features which were very difficult to emulate in traditional fiction.

There had been attempts, such as Rayuela, a novel by Julio Cortázar.  In his book, Cortázar, playing by postmodernist rules, turned upside down some of the characteristics of traditional fiction (arbitrary meaning, chapter 68; grammatical correctness, chapter 69; or readers’ responsibility, among others). But is this last issue the one that matters us most. For Cortázar, the reader should be committed to his reading to the point of choosing even the order in which he wanted the text to be read. For this reason, he introduced almost a hundred extra chapters. They are part of the novel, but the reader may read them in the order Cortázar recommended, all together at the end of the main text, do not read them at all, or even read them in whichever way he wants to.

The implied breaking of traditional rules comes by the fact that in a traditional novel chapter is linked only to two other chapters, the one before it, and the one that follows it. In Rayuela, it is not so. Each of the main chapters (those in the ‘Del lado de acŕand ‘Del lado de allŕ groups) is potentially linked to each of the additional chapters (‘De otros lados).

So this is the power of the current hypertexts, to organise the text in a way in which the reader will be able to choose his own path throughout the story.

In the specific case of the text that occupies us, Damascene, a tale for computers and compasses, we find a similar text. We are offered different ways to read it and choose the one we like the most. In the present paper, the reader will find an analysis of this tale written in 1998 by Milorad Pavic, and translated into English language by Sheila Sofrenovic. This analysis will comprehend formal aspects of the text, such as writing style, main topics, plot and characters, and together with them there is a brief analysis of external and internal time on Damascene.

But the key point of the work, the one that will have more attention, is the analysis of space. In the analysis of external space we will pay special attention to chapter arrangement, web hosting, availability online and the possibility or not of reading the text in a physical medium, such as paper. For the inner space analysis, we will take a look on two main issues: on the one hand we there are the references to where the story is placed; on the other hand we have some special places where the story happens, places that function as catalysts of the action (namely the churches and the palace).

 

AbstractIntroductionTopics and StylePlot

CharactersTime Analysis

External Space AnalysisInternal Space Analysis

 

Academic year 2008/2009
© a.r.e.a./Dr.Vicente Forés López
© Gil Fernández, Manuel
magilfer@alumni.uv.es
Universitat de Valčncia Press