Hypertext: Reading and Writing Online

Overview

Spring, 1999
Vanderbilt University

 


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Hypertext is the emerging literature of the World Wide Web.  Experimental hypertext novels create linked narratives with no beginnings or ends, literary mazes that can never be read twice in the same way.  The possibilities of hypertext composition challenge established notions of literary form, leading critics to argue about how hypertext will transform research, editing, models of reading and writing, and the nature of literacy itself.  Novelists and film makers attempt to imagine the future of a wired society, while corporate culture strives to cash in on the World Wide Web.

In this course, we will explore emerging forms of hypertext through readings of cyberpunk fiction; novels about the boundary between human and artificial life; movies that use cyborgs and virtual reality to speculate about the role of technology in society; hypertext fictions, both on the web and on CD-ROM; critical theory about the future of electronic writing, the definition of cyberspace, and the future of literature in an age of hypertext.

No computer expertise is required.  Although there will be frequent assignments requiring access to the World Wide Web, the techniques for using the net will be explained for those who have no previous experience.  Students will construct their own web pages, and all writing assignments will be turned in online.  Computer illiterates and beginners are encouraged to sign on.
 
 



 
 

Reading


The majority of the reading for this course will be online.  Students will need to order one book from Amazon.Com and a CD-rom disk from Eastgate Systems.  Please click on the links below to order these two texts.
 



Class Meeting Times

and Office Hours


 
Jay Clayton
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt English