Narrative theory and the executable Text
Jon-K. Adams · Journal of Literary Semantics · 2000
An executable text is a theoretical description that has been transformed into or specified as a computer program. This has several distinct advantages. First, it provides a rigorous method of analyzing complex narrative material ; for example, a computer program has a clear hierarchical structure that can abstract and simplify material at one level, while maintaining and organizing a mass of details at another. Second, it provides a convincing means of validating the adequacy of a theory : validation is an integral part of a computer program because a program either executes successfully or it fails to do so. And third, the program - as source code - is itself a text, which means that the executable text is not a computer model of narrative theory, but rather a version of that theory