"Click = Kill": Textual You in Ludic Digital Fiction

Abstract

This article offers a close-reading of geniwate's and Deena Larsen’s satirical, ludic Flash fiction The Princess Murderer, with a specific focus on how the text implements second person narration and other forms of the textual in juxtaposition with other narrational stances. We aim to explore the extent to which print-based narratological theories of the textual you apply to the text under investigation, and to outline new directions for research arising from the text's distinct (inter-)medial, literary/reflexive, and ludic qualities. Of particular interest will be the ways in which the reader and his/her role in the cybernetic feedback loop are constructed textually and interactionally. Specifically, we argue that current approaches to the in digital fiction need to be expanded, particularly with respect to its metafictional potential.