Encoding Hyperfiction: Preliminary Considerations for a Digital Edition of Susanne Berkenheger’s "Hilfe! Ein Hypertext aus vier Kehlen" (1998)

Ulrike Henny-Krahmer (Universität Rostock)

TEI Conference, Kraków, September 17, 2025.

Overview

authored by Susanne Berkenheger (*1963), German artist and author
published in 1998 on the internet (demo) and in 2000 on a CD-Rom
text-based hyperfiction with traditional elements of narration (Wirth 2005)
technique: linked HTML pages, Java Script elements and pop-up windows
Hilfe! as an example of genuinely digital literature (Landow 1992, Bajohr and Roloff 2024, Short 2024)

the screen transforms into a stage and the text sequences into a “fascinating form of kinetic poetry.”

(Wirth 2005)

<post> element is not a good fit (different semantics)
@next and @prev are not really meant for sequences
(possible alternative: @synch in connection with a timeline)
user interaction should be encoded more explicitly (clicks)
CMC chapter has some useful elements also for hyperfiction but was not designed for it (rather for chats and social media content)
new elements (or even a new chapter in the TEI Guidelines?) are still needed for encoding hyperfiction

* this section was updated after the talk: feedback from the audience was added here

potential to analyze possible paths through the narrative more easily; analyze technical means (windows, alerts, buttons, ...); analyze rendering (colors, etc.)
work as a whole becomes accessible at once
independent of presentation media

Bajohr, Hannes and Simon Roloff. 2024. Digitale Literatur. Zur Einführung. Hamburg: Junius Verlag.
Berkenheger, Susanne. 1998. “Hilfe! Ein Hypertext aus vier Kehlen.” http://www.wargla.de/hilfe.htm. Accessed September 16, 2025.
Berkenheger, Susanne. 2000. Hilfe! Ein Hypertext aus vier Kehlen. Zürich: update verlag.
DLA Marbach, ed. 2015. “Hilfe!” Wiki des Projekts ‚Netzliteratur authentisch archivieren und verfügbar machen.‘ Last changed Mai 3, 2016, accessed September 16, 2025. https://wwik.dla-marbach.de/line/index.php?title=Hilfe!&oldid=4070.
Landow, George P. 1992. Hypertext. The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.
Short, Emily. 2024. “Narrative and Interactivity.” In: The Cambridge Companion to Literature in the Digital Age, edited by Adam Hammond, 177–193. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009349567.012.
TEI Consortium. 2025. “Computer-mediated Communication.” In: TEI: Guidelines for Electronic Text Encoding and Interchange. P5 Version 4.10.2, September 4. https://tei-c.org/release/doc/tei-p5-doc/en/html/CMC.html.
Wirth, Uwe. 2005. “Wem der große Wurf gelungen...: Ansätze einer Hypernarratologie; dargestellt anhand von Susanne Berkenhegers Hypertext 'Hilfe!'.” Jahrbuch für Computerphilologie, edited by Georg Braungart, Karl Eibl, and Fotis Jannidis, 145–166. Paderborn: mentis. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:hebis:30-1138081.