What is a literary text? How have 'experimental' works expanded the boundaries of the literary, and what are the effects of new media on literary criticism? In this age of gadgets, widgets, twitters and blogs, Sony Readers and Apple iPads, the boundaries of what we consider literature and narrative have been blurred beyond recognition. The Routledge Companion to Experimental Literature maps this expansive and diverse field, looking at: the history of the term and the debate on what constitutes 'experimental literature' the impact of new media on literature, including digital literacies and hypertext genres and different forms of experimental texts from graphic novels through to gaming, dance, and interactive performance experimental movements such as modernism, futurism, surrealism, absurdism and postmodernism. Shedding new light on often critically neglected terrain, the contributors introduce this vibrant field, define its current state and offer exciting new perspectives on its future.