On the (im)possibility of writing a novel on Facebook

The participatory novel Nouvelles de la Colonie unfolded on a digital social network in the form of a role-playing game. The participating profiles were literally captives of their “table,” the Facebook platform, and performed this captivity throughout the narrative. The status of these “fictional” profiles and that of the nonparticipating readers is analyzed using postclassical narratology, semiopragmatics, and the theory of the architext.