Pale Fire itself foregrounds the issue of interpretative contestation through its own form, which consists of a 999 line poem by the character John Shade with an extravagant and often mad commentary by a fictional commentator named Charles Kinbote. The structure of Pale Fire resembles a “choose your own adventure” book in that the reader may choose to read the book in a variety of different orders, moving back and forth between and within lines of the poem and commentary. Not only does the order of reading vary from interpreter to interpreter, but the significance of the connections between the nodes of this network allows for vast numbers of possible interpretations. As various schools of interpreters arrive at shared interpretations, some paths through Pale Fire become closed off, and a reader must challenge or contest the status quo in order to advance an original and insightful interpretation. Hypertext is a useful medium for engaging in this type of interpretative contestation.
Click here for last semester’s hypertext essay assignment on interpretative contestation and Pale Fire.
Click on the links below for some completed student sample essays.