Abstract

Literary writing in the digital era is evolving using languages that have a much greater dynamic potential than those known hitherto. The very phrase `text processing' implies the notion of writing `in process', which has very recently been joined by another possibility, the unrestricted circulation of texts on networks on a worldwide scale, without spatial limits and in real time. In the arena of writing that is no longer simply textual but hypertextual, literary writing is becoming highly dynamic, intertextual, fragmentary, interactive and playful. In this article the author discusses the implications of digital publishing and warns of the unexpected consequences of replacing the book, entirely or partly, with new instruments and techniques of communication and information