October 26, 2003
MarkBernstein.org
 

Hypertext Performance

In the new issue of TEXT, Sabrina Achilles discusses Performative Pedagogy and Hypertext.

Storyspace is a hypertext writing program, created by Eastgate Systems. It has several possible applications but it is widely employed for writing fiction. The hypertext program changes the way in which texts, including fiction, may be written and read....

Hypertext.... is a fluid environment, it is 'theoretically infinite, open-ended, variable and disorderly', as Mireille Rosello writes (Rosello 1994: 147 ), and so no frameworks and models can be achieved. As Rosello says, for certain specialists, hypertexts would not be seen as 'inherently liberatory' because of their open-endedness. The question remains, then, can hypertext be used for 'shaping the social and cultural environment'?