A Study of Interactivity in Night of January the 16th A Play by Ayn Rand

Night of January the 16th is a play written in 1933 by Ayn Rand a Russian-American writer and philosopher. It is an example of interactive drama in its traditional sense. The audience in this play is involved in the narration and can manipulate the course of story based on the group decision. Interaction between the audience and the play in this work provide the ending of the play which make it unique and because of these characteristics, it is different from other interactive dramas written in the 20th century. This essay tries to study this play through the lens of ideas of Ronald Barth and explain how it affects the audience based on its form and if the audience at the end achieves a sense of jouissance or plasir based on the form of the play.

Keywords:

Ayn Rand , Ronald Barthes , Night of January the 16th , Interactivity , Drama , Jouissance , Plasir.