were performed on an electronic network (as was the first publication of Judy Malloy’s Uncle Roger in 1986, when nuggets of text were posted to discussion boards), and so of course can no longer be experienced as originally intended.
What does he mean by "can no longer be experienced as originally intended"? Is it known how it was intended to be experienced?
"Electronic Literature is considered a "born digital" art form with unique approaches to thinking about and working with digital technologies for the purpose of creating literary art."
EL is not a solely digitized written work (where there is first a literary text - e.g. storing William Shakespeare´s Sonnets in PDF format), but rather the other way round: using the possibilities provided by the digital technologies to create literary art.
"The book is dead, long live the link" and "hypertext is a way of life" - these two statements reflect the writer´s idea of what is important and unique about electronic literature:
Brian Kim Stefan is not giving a clear definition for the term as his intention is to provide the readers with "simples" of digital literature. "These simples describe some element of the deep structure of the text/algorithm inherent in all digital textuality - ...the mathematical underpinnings of text and how artists exploit them to create unique effects".
The artwork that he mentions here: Young Hae Chang Heavy Industries', Shelley Jackson' and David Clark's work are really fine examples of electronic literature.
E-lit is any text using the digital medium. In my opinion, it then includes written work (from PDFs to game stories) as well as oral texts (podcasts and recordings). I´m wondering whether graphic stories (solely graphic, without written/oral texts included) should be included here or it would be considered as part of the visual arts (like paintings and sculptures). I´m also curious to know how we handle the "private life" of the authors. In critical editions you can find included letters and diaries and I´m not sure how these sources can be accessible without violating the author´s privacy (I´m talking about late authors who cannot make public their own texts any more and no heirs to make such decisions).