General Issues
I.
Hypertext: Definition and Characteristics
 Definition
Characteristics: multiple links, multiple entry, multimedia
(+ animation), fragmentary, electronic (vs. print)
II.
Hypertext and Postmodern Theories
- Hypertext
exemplifies and extends post-structuralist theories about
text (and textuality), language and reading; such as those of
Mikhail Bakhtin (heteroglossia), Roland Barthes (writable
text, which has no fixed boundary, can be broken down to several lexias,
and allows readers to choose their own route in reading), Jacque
Derrida (dissemination of meaning) and Deleuze (nomad,
grass-like associative thinking).
- Hypertext
embodies postmodern challenge of authorship and originality, boundary
and totality.
III.
Hypertext and Literature
- Hyperfiction
-- story fragments, multiple choices in reading, or readers' collective
product;
- Hyperpoem
-- mostly visual poems, in which words are images, or images are used
to enhance the poetic meanings.
- Arts Turned
Multimedia or a Game -- All kinds of arts, encoded as 0 and
1, are easily connected, combined or mixed together.
IV.
Possible Negative Consequences
- Textual
Production: random and expansive (Stuart Moulthrop)
- Reading:
surfing and playing games, but not close reading
- Public
Good vs. Limited Access and Invisible Centers: Free access
is not possible yet (under the influence of capitalism); at the centers
are those who own a server, have access to one, and those who have
knowledge of managing a server or producing hypertext.
Relevant
Links
(remote)
Hypertext
Theories by George Landow from Brown Univ.
As
We May Think
歧路花園 (A Garden
of Forking Paths--a site with a good collection of hyper-poems and
articles on hypertext
(external)
Literary
Criticism Databank: Postmodernism and Urban Space ;
Postmodern Theories and Texts
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