COLLABORATION IN E-LITERATURE: FROM “THE UNKNOWN” TO “PIKSEL ZDRÓJ”

Collaboration in e-literature, thanks to the interdisciplinary, intersemiotic and computational nature of the field, is a subject close to a vast majority of artists and critics. However, the particularities of the collaborative process are discussed mostly in interviews, panels and private conversations. The number of critical analyses and overviews is still relatively small. The aim of this article is to expand on the existing findings (especially Scott Rettberg’s reflection on the collaborative aspects of The Unknown and Nick Montfort’s arguments on collaborative programming), propose several new categories that may prove useful and introduce a Polish example of a collaborative creative work (the hypertext Piksel Zdrój authored by 8 writers, 2015). Of importance are also questions of identity of e-literature within a vast horizon of collaborative activities in game development, as well as the notion of authorship and authorial integrity, which literary collaboration in the digital realm puts to a heavy stress test. In my reflection, e-lit collaboration is situated within two contexts, one of which has been gaining prominence in recent years. On the one hand it is traditional collaboration in literature and film, on the other, collaboration in games and software. Posing questions about the place of e-literary collaboration among creative participation in other media – as I will demonstrate – might bring insights not only about the specificity of participatory activities in the field but also about the identity of electronic literature within the general cultural land-scape.