Literacka i paraliteracka twórczość w internecie (na polskich i obcojęzycznych przykładach z lat 2001-2017)

The Internet is a thing of interest for many scholars of various kind. It is no wonder. Technological and information technology issues entwine with economic and management ones in the eyes of cultural experts, lawyers, sociologists and psychologists (not to mention politicians). The power and potential of the Internet was also noticed by literary scholars who took interest in this environment and began their own research. Currently we can observe many forms of literary activity in the web: from chats and discussions, through reviews and analysis or reading promotion, archiving and digitization of cultural texts to idiosyncratic creations of amateurs and professionals. Digitalization of culture indisputably poses some threats (like striking graphomania and a great influx of mediocre as foretold by those against web works). However, it gives both readers and writers unimaginable possibilities which critics of the Internet tend to forget or not notice at all. Self-publishing, e-books, blogs, literary forums and magazines, social media, hypertext novels and, of course, fan fiction – these are just a few of many ways of literature’s existence on the Internet. It is worth to take a closer look at them due to, amongst others, the way they modify the standards of not only literariness but also of boundaries between producer and consumer. This paper is on theoretical side of phenomena of literature and literary culture on the Internet. I focus on the descriptive methods with the use of source texts. Due to practical reasons the paper has been divided into three parts. They have been ordered from the most general one to the most detailed one. I begin with Internet’s paradoxes devoted to some general issues where (in three chapters) I present three ways culture (in a broad sense) functions in the web environment. In the first chapter I describe the culture of the new media, I describe changes in recipients’ relations and the influence of the new media on culture. In the second chapter I describe different forms of literary activity on the Internet. It considers the usefulness of the term liter net and various activities: amateur, half-professional and professional. I describe literarish activity we know from the real world such as publishing houses, bookshops and literary magazines or existence of both formal and informal literary groups such as discussion groups, literary forums, and platforms where amateurs may develop and present their texts. Chapter three is devoted to some controversial issues of Internet culture like the influx of graphomania, copyright law infringement, violence, cyberchurches etc.In the second part – Internet’s literary and paraliterary narratives (in another three chapters) I present an overview of ways literature functions in the web. Chapter four includes the description of two most recognizable literary forms on the Internet: blogs and hypertexts (both novels and poetry). They are both well-recognized but they form a basis of the literature on the Internet which means they cannot be omitted in this paper. When describing them, I’d like to highlight basic changes that came to perceiving blogs (leaving the paradigm of just internal journal) and changes that came to the experimental, avant-garde way hypertexts are. In the fifth chapter I presented a less talked about issue of literature in social media such as Facebook or Twitter. In defiance of its looks, social media are full of literary activity in various forms like web pages for literature fans, quotations miscellanies and creative literary games and own creations. The last chapter of this part (the sixth one) is concerned with mash up and remix creations in the web. Remix culture became a permanent element of art and is cherished by amateurs as supported by evidence of numerous YouTube videos. It is worth to look at how this form of art found its way into literature (not only by fans but professionals as in Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Seth Grahame-Smith or Przedwiośnie żywych trupów by Kamila Śmiałkowski). The third part – Case study: fan fiction – is concerned with detailed discussion about fan fiction, one of the Internet’s literary forms which is the core of my scholar interest. The seventh chapter explains basics of fans’ creations. Even though we are far behind in that aspect (since 1992 there have been books on this phenomenon such as Textual Poachers Television Fans & Participatory Culture by Henry Jenkins or Enterprising Women. Television Fandom and the Creation of Popular Myth by Camille Bacon-Smith) in the last few years there have been three books on the matter (one of which is concerned with law’s take on fan creations). There are still many ambiguities at the matter, especially with the issue of classification of different kinds of fan fiction. There are still many inconsistencies at this matter, especially with classification of various kinds of fan fiction. When researching this phenomenon, I tried to classify those terms by creating my own classification system. In chapter eight I present examples of literary works written by mainly Harry Potter fans (it is one of the greatest and most active fandomes. I do, however, use examples concerning other cultural Texas as well). It is easier to understand the issues discussed when they are presented with an example. Chapter nine is concerned with two phenomena: professionalization and fan activism. Professionalization is an overlooked issue which is surprising when you look at the scale of the phenomenon. It is about amateur creators becoming professional. What is interesting, the need for it can be observed not only amongst fan creators but also amongst Internet creators in general. Blogs, facebook reportings, creations from forum and other forms of creations do professionalize. Fan activism is an issue brought up mainly by foreign scholars who ceased to treat fans as useless and disconnected from life. It turns out that fans can not only be lovers of a certain cultural text but also resourceful activists helping those in need and defending values like equality and justice. They often join social movements in their own countries and internationally. Due to the fact that the Internet is now common and increadibly fast and that it develops and spreads rapidly cause that one cannot stay oblivious to the way it affects the society and modern culture as a whole. Media has been present for centuries and has always had a vast influence on social and political life as well as on literature and art. New media led to the culture of excess, immediate information transfer, convergence and multimediality. Its characteristics are: reducing the distance, remix and blending of different categories like a creator, a recipient or literateness, oralness and iconicity. Up till this day in Poland the things mentioned above were discussed only partially even though literary potential of the Internet was discussed without presenting the overall character of literature in the web. My aim is to present a broader picture of literary context of the Internet. This paper is to be a kind of a guide for all those who want to face peculiar literariness of the Internet and its creative side.