The notion of ergodic literature (from the Greek: “ergon” –“work”, “hodos”, “path”) is coined by Espen J. Aarseth in his book “Cybertext – Perspectives on Ergodic Literature” [3]. Ergodic texts imply specific efforts during reading which means involving of active efforts of the reader’s cognitive system.
Uncertainty implies lexical and semantic varying of a
word, which demonstrates a slight modification in form with the word's
general denotative meaning, and has several aspects of a single meaning [1], [2]. In the comprehension of the composition of a literary text, uncertainty is strongly marked on the content and formal levels of compositional structure.
In the context of ergodic literature, uncertainty can be revealed by means of unusual text division. Such experimental devices include graphic irregularity, illogical sequence of book parts, complicated differentiation of literary elements (exposition, prologue, opening, plot development, climax, ending, postposition, epilogue).
“House of Leaves” by Mark Z. Danielewski can serve as the vivid example of ergodic fiction. Its deconstructed text differs in dozens of footnotes, specific manner of writing which causes a claustrophobic and an agoraphobic effect, multiple narrators, unreliable narrator, numerous text layers, different fonts, colored text. Uncertainty arises from unpredictability of plot and literary form twists. Implication of unreliable narrator defines the reading of the novel “House of Leaves” as an interpretative strategy.
Unreliable narrator is the narrative instance which misinterprets, underplays, and exaggerates facts or events in the plot [4]. The theory of unreliable narrator, developed by W. Booth and supplemented by A. Nünning, relates to narrator and narratator (text recipient) as well. Narratator interprets uncertain places of literary texts in accordance with the schemes embedded in his or her mind which are used for the interpretation of the surrounding world in general. That means the emergence of a numerous interpretations due to the individual empirical experience of each narratator.
List of references:
1.Ullmann, S. (1959). The Principles of Semantics. Blackwell.
2.Kudrevatykh, L. P. (1996). Semiologicheskiye osnovaniya semanticheskikh tipov slov v sovremennom angliyskom yazyke [Semiological basis of semantic types of words in modern English] [PhD Dissertation Abstract].
3.Aarseth, Espen J. (1997). Cybertext—Perspectives on Ergodic Literature. Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 1–2.
4.Shen, D. (2011). "Unreliability", Paragraph 46. In Hühn, Peter et al. (Ed.): the living handbook of narratology. Hamburg: Hamburg University Press. URL = hup.sub.uni-hamburg.de/lhn/index.php?title=Unreliability&oldid=1057
[view date: 14 May 2011]
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