• Hypertext is a combination of words, pictures and sounds available via CADD (computer-assisted design and drafting) and found in cyberspace only

• Hypertext is becoming an object of research within textology which describes the stages of text evolution as

• non-coherent Coherent hypertext = reader-dependent

• Any text is an inter-text, other texts are found within target text at different levels in more or less recognizable way as texts of preceding and surrounding cultures

• NB! World-known publishing houses try to compete with electronic produce and quite often at book fairs offer both – printed editions of superb quality and CD/ DVD

• There are cultural & technological differences between the countries which entail information preferences: Asian countries are technocratic and digital nowadays

• Printed books are still preferable in many cases as you can touch them, lie in your bed, tactile impressions are important

• Hypertext is connected with

• ergonomics of mind, Ecology of mind New Rhetoric

• There are no technological limits for electronic text minimization now, the problem is failing eyesight

• History of hypertext

• Vannevar Bush tried to work out the ways of information storage in huge amounts - memex, offered the prototype of Internet, www, insisted that information storage in human brain is not chaotic.

• Theodore Nelson cherished the idea about information storage based on key words and associations, offered the term ‘hypertext’ in 1965 to describe an informative text with the help of key words. Nelson dreamed of information medium which works in leaps on the basis of associations, claimed hypertext was non-coherent writing.

• Unlimited choice for the reader

• Interactive screen

• Continuum of texts where readers navigate themselves

• Electronic archives are updated regularly

• Archives are subdivided into static & dynamic

• Changes is the basis of existence within electronic archives

• In 1988 Swiss & Weiss described hypertext as a number of networks to organize information. Link editors nowadays think in terms of potential associations, Now key words are used for information search, that is why they are required for dissertations, summary

• Barthes states that new textuality is hypertext which consists of blocks, words, images connected in different and numerous ways. These text components can interact but none of them is superior (Barthes 1974)

• Hypertext is a galaxy with lots of entries and accesses.

Hypertext. Characteristics

1. Ephemeral nature

• Ergodic discourse Individual strategy/ itinerary

• Writerly / readerly text Found in cyberspace not available in other environment

• Electronic signal Computer-mediated

2. Interactive

• Actualized links Potential response

3. Emergent, not predetermined meaning

• Open No beginning Multiple, unlimited interpretation

4. Spatial, not linear organization

Three-dimensional Provokes numerous associations multilayer

Fragmentation of space Design principles Kinds of focus

Photo-text-picture combination Verbal + visual information

Multi-linear organization of hypertext will pose the question about dichotomy of language & speech

Either dichotomy will be extended to include other components / concepts

Multi-linear structure will be of complex nature including visual non-verbal elements

5. De-centered structure

Expands unpredictably

No single centre where it is generated from

6. Free growth

• No end

7. Heteroglossic / multi-semiotic (креолизованный)

Color symbolism

Fonts variation + color variation

Variability VS recognizability of sites/ web pages

Symbols are becoming the best eye-catchers

8. Coherence is optional

• New textuality type

9. Information saturated

New quality and quantity parameters

Updating is crucially important in the Knowledge Age

Hypertext is not dependent on TV/ radio schedule

• Information updating

• There are different approaches to information updating

periodical – depending on periods and cycling and

immediate – depending on information acquisition.

10. Multiple author

Writer = co-author, co-writer

Objective

Multi- aspectual