TY - JOUR

T1 - LIMITE unbound

T2 - François Bon’s digitalized fiction and the reinvention of the book

AU - Fulop, Erika

N1 - This is a post-peer-review, pre-copy edited version of an article published in Journal of Romance Studies. The definitive publisher-authenticated version is available online at: http://www.berghahnjournals.com/abstract/journals/romance-studies/16/1/jrs160105.xml

PY - 2016/10/1

Y1 - 2016/10/1

N2 - Since 2005, François Bon, who began his literary career in the 1980s as a novelist, has gradually shifted the focus of his work onto his now all encompassing web-based literary and multimedia oeuvre, tierslivre.net. As part of this transition from paper to web, Bon returned to his printed books to showcase them digitally. Most notably, in 2010 he undertook to retype his second novel, Limite (1985), to publish it in the form of a blog, prefacing each passage with an autobiographical and critical commentary. Once completed, he reedited the full commented text as an e-book. This article argues that even though all three versions have the same narrative at their core, each stage of this project offers something different to the reader and suggests a different focus andconception of literature. Together they illustrate that the shifts between media change the reading experience even without exploiting much of the potential for hyperlinking and interactivity, and that before and beyond all the possible narrative experiments it enables, the digital transition means for literature a move away from the logic of the book towards the ‘logic of the project’.

AB - Since 2005, François Bon, who began his literary career in the 1980s as a novelist, has gradually shifted the focus of his work onto his now all encompassing web-based literary and multimedia oeuvre, tierslivre.net. As part of this transition from paper to web, Bon returned to his printed books to showcase them digitally. Most notably, in 2010 he undertook to retype his second novel, Limite (1985), to publish it in the form of a blog, prefacing each passage with an autobiographical and critical commentary. Once completed, he reedited the full commented text as an e-book. This article argues that even though all three versions have the same narrative at their core, each stage of this project offers something different to the reader and suggests a different focus andconception of literature. Together they illustrate that the shifts between media change the reading experience even without exploiting much of the potential for hyperlinking and interactivity, and that before and beyond all the possible narrative experiments it enables, the digital transition means for literature a move away from the logic of the book towards the ‘logic of the project’.

KW - digital transition

KW - François Bon

KW - e-book

KW - electronic literature

KW - Limite

KW - literature on the web

KW - project,

KW - reader experience

KW - rewriting

KW - Le Tiers Livre

U2 - 10.3167/jrs.2016.160105

DO - 10.3167/jrs.2016.160105

M3 - Journal article

VL - 16

SP - 62

EP - 90

JO - Journal of Romance Studies

JF - Journal of Romance Studies

SN - 1473-3536

IS - 1

ER -