Categories of Digital Literature include language, image, sound, gestures and computers rather then traditional forms of literature that include law, medicine, and history. (Marie-Laure Ryan) 2004

In regards to new media art and criticism, Roberto Simanowski claims, the verdict of literature as "pure", as primarily textual, is rendered under attitudes that are doctrinal, not technological. 2009

When we (readers) contemplate a work of digital literature, we are tempted to look at its proximity to the logic that informs some kind of essence, form, or instance of what has come before under the term literature. (Roberto Simanowski) 2009

Digital Literature has made it possible to include the aesthetic and the poetic: the entirely participatory and the entirely receptive; the act of narrative creation and that of real-time production. (Francisco J. Ricardo) 2009

The substitution of text for image, sound, and action is the justification of digital literature. (Francisco J. Ricardo) 2009 

Digital Literature is a literary genre consisting of works of literature existing in digital environments. The evolution of the genre, as evident from the aforementioned quotations, parallels the rate of innovation in technology. Digital Literature started as a purely creative and informative form of literature as indicated in the work of Abbe Don. However, technological capabilities have allowed for multimodal aspects to define the genre. Image, video, sound, and hypertext have become the definitive characteristics of digital literature. As the implementation of multimodal aspects develop, the need for aesthetic pleasure is compounded. A system for proper literary criticism is also required for digital literature to become accepted in traditional scholarly environments. Both of these issues are addressed in this piece.