So, I get a little HYPER about hypertexting. These two ideas go together so powerfully and in so many ways. Literary theory in the last twenty years has become fascinated with the social nature of language, the interconnection of text and context, and with "intertextuality" -- the relationship of texts to one another. George Landow wrote an important book, Hypertext Theory a number of years ago which was just reissued last year as Hypertext Theory 3.0. He explores the relationship between developments in the internet, particularly the nature of hypertexting, and literary theory. (It would be wonderful for a student in 5970 to give this book a look and give us a report!)
We talked about the ways in which hypertexting is actually an old idea -- encyclopedias, footnotes, glossed texts -- and about how it is emerging in the digital age. Sarah Kajder (check out her blog on her new book!) got us starting thinking about teachers using hypertext to facilitate students making "close readings" of literary texts. We started from that critical reading and analysis connection, expanding it, adding in contextual and then visual information. We were talking about digital archives so the possibilities for playing with literary works began to expand. Then, once I started riffing on students writing creative/personal/expressive writing as hyper links to texts, connecting it to postmodern architecture, and thinking about what new kinds of readings such an approach could open, and how such student projects could become class projects (example "Postcolonial Dialogues" site created by one of my classes.), on-line class contributions to knowledge, well, it was pretty "hyper" alright.
I wonder what other hyper - flights - of - teaching - fantasy we might - can -will aspire to!
About Me
- Allen Webb
- Professor of English at Western Michigan University, I focus on the teaching of literature, postcolonial studies, and internet learning. Visit my website, Allen Webb.net
2 comments:
Hyper or not, it was still a great discourse. Hypertexting, like so much else related to the internet, is tremendously flexible. Well worth getting a little excited about. Hypertext glossing of literary works, in particular, I'm very attracted to as a teaching tool.
Getting hyper over hypertext/ing seems perfectly reasonable.
And I find myself wondering about some protocol questions or getting a little "hyper" about my questions concerning blogging. Maybe I'm trying to impose old listserv strategies onto blogging, but I wonder if we could have a blog post somewhere that would allow us to ask some basic questions, such as "Heck, what do you think about lenght of comment?" "Why do I get warnings when I link to some people's blogs that tell me I'm going to "unsecure" information? And a bunch of other questions I've had at various times yesterday (when I got my blogs started) and this morning while blogging around.
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