O momento hipertextual

Abstract

Hypertext may represent a brave new future for textuality. On the other hand hypertext appears to be limited by its information processing origins. This limitation makes questionable some common postmodern claims about hypertext. In order to seize the cultural high ground its proponents often caricature previous practices of print literature, while the processes of reading are discounted and the mechanism of hypertext is promoted over its content. Hypertext fictions tend to disable the constructive and anticipatory processes of literary readers and reduce narrative to information. Confusions over what hypertext is good for suggest that its moment may already have passed.