1. Hypertext, Hypertext literature
And
Reading

2. The end of Gutenburg?
www.biffonline.co.uk/hypertext.html

3. History of hypertext
• 1945, concept proposed by Vannevar Bush
• 1965, term was coined by Ted Nelson (quot;non-sequential writing)
• 1967, the first experimental systems - The Hypertext Editing System
and Press (1968) was built by Van Dam in Brown University
• 1968, NLS system was displayed by Doug Engelbart at FJCC
• PC, Internet, 1st examination of their uses and implications
• WWW refinement of existing technologies
digital immigrants to digital natives

4. Hypertext
- Nodes
- Link
- Network
quot;we must abandon conceptual systems founded upon ideas of
center, margin, hierarchy, and linearity and replace them
with ones of multilinearity, nodes, links, and networksquot;
(Landow)

5. Traditional text (linear) Hypertext (non-linear)
www.cs.sfu.ca/.../notes/Chap1/Chap1.html

6. Hypertext literature
Victory Garden
(Stuart Moulthrop, 1991)
- Multiple entries
- No protagonist
- No set ‘end’
http://www.eastgate.com/catalog/VictoryGarden.html
http://www.informationfarming.com/VG/VGStart.html

7. Challenge & Revolution
Traditional literature Hypertext literature
• Linear • Non-linear (arborescent)
“the plot must be followed in a
specific direction, from birth to
death, beginning to end.”
• Writer and reader • writer+reader=wreader(Marti
n E. Rosenberg)
• Interactive
• Spatial and temporal
abruption • Sense of freedom
• Decentering

8. Drawbacks
• Confusion
• Out of control (collaborative creation)
• Print culture
quot;[p]rint culture affordsirreplaceable forms of
focused attention and contemplation that make
complex communications and insights possible.”
“in which the quiet voice of literature cannot
easily be heard”

9. “Solvitur ambulando.
We'll know where we're going
when we get there.”
Stuart Moulthrop

10. References
George P. Landow, Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and
Technology, 1992.
Marie-Laure Ryan, Multivariant Narratives, A Companion to Digital Humanities, pp. 415-
430, 2004
Martin E. Rosenberg, Physics and Hypertext: Liberation and Complicity in Art and Pedagogy, 1994.
Nelson, Ted, Computer Lib / Dream Machines: New Freedoms Through Computer Screens—a
Minority Report. Chicago: Hugo's Book Service, 1974.
Robert Coover, Literary Hypertext: The Passing of the Golden Age, 1999.

11. THANK YOU