Hypertext: The Third Wave? By Linda Perkins

In "Hypertext: the Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory & Technology", George P. Landow examines various perspectives and explanations about hypertext, "...a word coined by Theodor H. Nelson in the 1960's, [which] refers ... to a form of electronic text, a radically new information technology, and a mode of publication" (3,4). What is now known as hypertext has been described by others in a variety of ways, with the end result that they all describe the same thing, or aspects of the same thing.

Michel Foucault speaks in terms of networks and links, (qtd. in Foucault [1973]) while Jacques Derrida also uses "web, network and interwoven" (qtd. in Derrida [1967]). Mikhail Bakhtin speaks of the prose in a hypertext novel involving more than one center of consciousness, a change in the point-of-view for the reader. (Bakhtin 18) But it is Roland Barthes' analysis of how hypertext creates a new type of reading experience, the "writerly" vs. the "readerly", which provides a clearer understanding of the important shift hypertext is creating for the literary world, and for other information processing. (qtd. in Barthes S/Z 4) While Barthes refers to the use of hypertext in general, the extensive use of "writerly" text on the World Wide Web appears to be catapulting the reading experience into a "third wave"1, a third literary "wave" that will move much faster than the previous two literary "waves".

Barthes defines hypertext as a move away from "readerly" text to "writerly" text-text which the reader has the freedom to move away from by following links to references or other definitions. Readers "write" their own reading experiences. They can make choices to diverge from the original text whenever some link from the original leads them to some other aspect of a discussion which they find more compelling. From this link, readers may choose to go through another link to follow some new "thread" more deeply. And from this thread.... The readers are "writing" their own reading.

Readers may also choose to become writers, writing in a manner which initially appears classic, or "readerly", but, providing they provide links to background or further information in their text, the writing becomes "writerly" text-hypertext. Compared to classic writing, which requires the reader to search out references later (often a difficult and time-consuming task), a writer is in a more vulnerable position when using hypertext. They will be expected to provide links to text references, links which can actually support or discredit what is written. The writer must be very honest because "facts" can be so easily confirmed by the reader. A writer must also understand that the links being offered to readers may well lead the readers away from the initial writing. Another aspect of writing "writerly" text may be that writers will find they have to narrow the main topic they are writing about, because the links may become so extensive that they diffuse the different points a writer is trying to convey. For the reader to actually grasp each point in depth, they may have to read through so many links that the whole reading experience around these sub-topics becomes overwhelming and too time consuming,. The reader may give up and quit-a less-than-ideal end result for the writer. Obviously, hypertext writing appears to require new models for writers. Perhaps only excellent writing will eventually prevail in this environment.

The movement away from the handwritten manuscript, available to only a few, to the printed manuscript, available to the masses, can be thought of as the first and second "waves" of reading technologies. The shift between these first two "waves" took several hundred years. And it might have taken decades, or longer, for the third "wave", hypertext, to have had a pervasive impact on reading and information access in general, or to have become a common standard. However, the rapid rise of computers in the home, with many connected to the World Wide Web and its user-friendly hypertext interface, has exposed millions of people to hypertext. In only five (or so) short years, this new way of experiencing literature and accessing information has been introduced to the general public. Prior to this phenomena, only a few people had access to, or, even knowledge of, the expensive, proprietary software which was needed to create and read hypertext. Now, anyone can do both quite easily. The reader can read "writerly" text and the reader can also write "writerly" text-and publish it-instantly. Millions of people can now have a writer's "voice" in a way never before possible. The fact that many are already using their "hypertexted" voice on the World Wide Web indicates that the "third wave" of publishing and communicating is firmly upon us. The days of hypertext as "theory" and a computer-in-every-home as "possible" are gone. The "theory" and the "possible" are now reality-they have converged.

Works Cited

Bakhtin, Mikhail. Problems of Dostoevsky's Poetics. Edited and Translated by Caryl Emerson. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1984.

Barthes, Roland. S/Z. 1970. Translated by Richard Miller. New York: Hill and Wang, 1972.

Derrida, Jacques. De la Grammatolgie. Paris: Les Editions de Minuit, 1967.

Foucault, Michel. The Archeology of the HumanSciences. New York: Vintage, 1973.

Landow, George P. Hypertext: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory & Technology. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press, 1992.
http://www.calliope.jhu.edu/press/books/landow/Contents.html(2 Jan. 1997)

Nelson, Theodor H. Computer Lib/Dream Machines. Seattle, Washington: Microsoft Press, 1987.

Toffler, Alvin. The Third Wave. New York: Bantam Books, 1991.

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