Ergodic literature is literature that requires special effort to navigate. The term is derived from the Greek words ergon, meaning "work" and hodos, meaning "path". It's an experimental way of narrative and it's also named as non-lineal literature.

This can mean having to click on hyperlinks to follow the text, or to have to use menus to continue reading in a new place. This is different from conventional "nonergodic" literature that almost never requires the reader to do anything beyond simply turning pages and moving their eyes. In this literature, the user -not only reader- have to make complex semiotic operations to construct the reading. Ergodic texts demands on who was reading, to play an active role.

The term was coined by Espen Aarseth in his book Cybertext. Perspectives on Ergodic Literature,. Though it might suppose that this kind of literature was born in the second half of the 20th century, at the same time as computers, the fact is that the theoretical people of this literature often mention I Ching as the first sample of this literature. Also known as the Book of Changes, the text is from the time of the Western Zhou Dynasty (1122-770 B.C.). The I Ching is made up of sixty-four symbols, named hexagrams, which are the binary combinations of six whole or broken changing lines - which is why it's also called the Book of Changes. A hexagram has a main text and other six, smaller than the main text, one for each line. By manipulating three coins or forty-nine yarrow stalks you can combine two hexagrams which contain the answer to a question you had written previously.

Another good example of ergodic literature is Composition No.1, a novel on cards written by Marc Saporta in 1961.

See also

• Digital poetry
• Fighting Fantasy Game Books

Examples of ergodic literature online:

• 253
• The Company Therapist
• lies
• My body & a Wunderkammer
• Arteroids