Ergodic Literature

Ergodic literature requires readers to do more than follow ordinary lines of text: they must make choices or perform other actions to navigate or shape the work. Espen Aarseth uses the term, derived from words meaning “work” and “path,” to classify texts by how they operate rather than by whether they are printed or digital. His framework distinguishes the signs encoded in a work from the signs presented to its reader, and describes texts along seven dimensions, including whether content changes, whether paths are predictable, how readers gain access, and what actions they can take. These actions range from interpreting a text to exploring routes, assembling content, or permanently changing it. A text is ergodic when it requires at least one action beyond interpretation; the framework allows 576 possible combinations of textual features.

The approach challenges the idea that digital media automatically make reading nonlinear: some hypertexts offer limited routes, while print works can demand substantial reader participation. Examples include B. S. Johnson’s The Unfortunates, whose loose sections can be read in different orders; Queneau’s combinable poems; and text-based adventure games. Cybertext is a narrower related concept: calculation must generate the text shown to the reader. Thus, a chatbot that responds to user input, or the I Ching with rules for generating readings, can be cybertext, while a basic linked hypertext may be ergodic without qualifying as cybertext. The distinctions remain debated, but the concepts have shaped scholarship on digital literature and games.