Sur quelques potentialités de la littérature virtuelle

In the light of recent technology progress, traditional and relatively conservative arts such as literature change substantially together with visual arts and other parts of cyberculture. This article provides an overview of general problems and serves as an introduction to the topic. It discusses the category of virtual literature and questions its most important aspects. It takes the possible definitions of the word virtual and virtuality as its starting point and tries to pinpoint the great changes that affect writing assisted by computers and networks. The status of the author, the reader and their interaction are explained on the background of the human/machine interface and turing's test. The most important stakes of interactivity, combinatorics and generation of text in writing fiction, as well as new facets of post-modern hybridity and mash-ups of literature with various new media.