What is a hypertext?
'Electronic hypertext is a network of nodes of information connected by links. The user navigates the system by utilising its links, and as the system expands and as one hypertext is connected to others the potential scope for navigation becomes ever larger and interlocking systems ever more complex'
What is a hypertext novel?
A hypertext novel works in the same pattern of any hypertext, but the 'nodes of information' are sections of the text. The links in a hypertext novel allow you to navigate your way through the text without having to follow the sequential page-by-page form of a novel, so that you are making choices about the order in which you read the text. This is much like the book-games available for children, where you can choose what you want to happen next, and turn a particular page to change the sequence or action of the story. Or you might choose to follow a particular character or theme that interests you. In many cases, the hypertext novel may not announce exactly where you will be taken when you click on a link, and the reader must work to understand how the nodes or texts link together. Walter Sorrell, author of 'The Heist' observes 'a hypertext story just spreads out like oil on a pond'. This might help you to understand the structure that you'll find.
Links to hypertext novels on the web will be
provided in the bibliography, accessable further on in the site.
The link below will take you into my
hypertext version of Chapter One of Zadie Smith's White Teeth. As you
are reading, think about how you feel about this kind of reading, do you feel
in control? Look out for themes and concepts that might link the pages
together. Once you have read the version as you order it, maybe you'll want to
go back and try another route. How do the different versions compare?
(Just in case you don't realise, the teeth are the
links.)
White Teeth was published in 2001 by Penguin Books. It is Zadie Smith's first novel, and won the 2000 Whitbread First Novel Award. The text from the novel in this site is a selection of paragraphs from the first chapter of the first book, 'The Peculiar Second Marriage of Archie Jones' from Archie 1974,1945. The text was inputted by the author of this site and has been verified.