关键词: 网络文学, 印刷文学, 媒介转换, 新媒体文学理论

Abstract: Focusing on the changing concept of author, this paper tries to investigate the new demands posed to literary theory from the new media by contextualizing its argument in the combined development of literary theory, literary history and new media. The paper claims that literary theory, due to its development in the context of print culture, increasingly shows its deficiencies in the current media. In terms of the authorship, individual authors may not have been essential for literary creation, and the concept of determined authors is established in written system and the print culture and re-enforced with the regulations of intellectual property rights. Developed in the context of print culture, contemporary literary theory will surely collaborate with the power of the print-culture system, strengthening the link between the individual reader and the author by such concepts as "literary style" and "literariness." In the internet literature, the authorship changes and it may not point to a single author, and the production of literary texts may become a categorical concept. The paper claims that internet literature may provide a new perspective to view literary practice and review literary theory, and therefore the circle of literary theory should pay positive attention to internet literature.

Key words: internet literature, print literature, media shift, new-media literary theory