Hypermedia and Literary Studies

Consider a work from Shakespeare. Imagine, as you read it, being able to call up instantly the Elizabethan usage of a particular word, variant texts for any part of the work, critical commentary, historically relevant facts, or oral interpretations by different sets of actors. This is the sort of richly interconnected, immediately accessible literary universe that can be created by hypertext (electronically linked texts) and hypermedia (the extension of linkages to visual and aural material).The essays in Hypermedia and Literary Studies discuss the theoretical and practical opportunities and challenges posed by the convergence of hypermedia systems and traditional written texts. They range from the theory and design of literary hypermedia to reports of actual hypermedia projects from secondary school to university and from educational and scholarly to creative applications in poetry and fiction.George P. Landow is Professor of English and Art at Brown University. Paul Delany is Professor of English at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada.Contents. Hypertext, Hypermedia, and Literary Studies. Theory. Reading and Writing the Electronic Book. From Electronic Books to Electronic Libraries: Revisiting "Reading and Writing the Electronic Book." The Rhetoric of Hypermedia: Some Rules for Authors. Topographic Writing: Hypertext and the Electronic Writing Space. Reading from the Map: Metonymy and Metaphor in the Fiction of "Forking Paths." Poem Descending a Staircase: Hypertext and the Simultaneity of Experience. Reading Hypertext: Order and Coherence in a New Medium. Threnody: Psychoanalytic Digressions on the Subject of Hypertexts. Applications. Biblical Studies and Hypertext. Ancient Materials, Modern Media: Shaping the Study of Classics with Hypertext. Linking Together Books: Adapting Published Material into Intermedia Documents. The Shakespeare Project. The Emblematic Hyperbook. HyperCard Stacks for Fielding's Joseph Andrews: Issues of Design and Content. Hypertext for the PC: The Rubén Dario Project. Hypermedia in Schools.

Paul Delany is Professor of English at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada.