Hypertext, in
semiotics, is a text which alludes to, derives from, or relates to an earlier work or hypotext.
For example,
James Joyce's ''
Ulysses'' could be regarded as one of the many hypertexts deriving from
Homer's ''
Odyssey'';
Angela Carter's "The Tiger's Bride" can be considered a hypertext which relates to an earlier work, or hypotext, the original fairy-story ''
Beauty and the Beast''. Hypertexts may take a variety of forms including imitation,
parody, and
pastiche
A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking it ...
.
The word was defined by the French theorist
Gérard Genette
Gérard Genette (7 June 1930 – 11 May 2018) was a French literary theorist, associated in particular with the structuralist movement and such figures as Roland Barthes and Claude Lévi-Strauss, from whom he adapted the concept of ''bricolage ...
as follows: "Hypertextuality refers to any relationship uniting a text B (which I shall call the ''hypertext'') to an earlier text A (I shall, of course, call it the
hypotext), upon which it is grafted in a manner that is not that of commentary."
So, a hypertext derives from hypotext(s) through a process which Genette calls transformation, in which text B "evokes" text A without necessarily mentioning it directly ".
Note that this technical use of the word in semiotics differs from its
use in the field of computing, although the two are related. Liestøl's study of Genette's narratological model and
hyperfiction
Hypertext fiction is a genre of electronic literature, characterized by the use of hypertext links that provide a new context for non-linearity in literature and reader interaction. The reader typically chooses links to move from one node of text t ...
considers how they are related and suggests that hyperfiction narratives have four levels:
* 1. Discourse as discoursed;
* 2. Discourse as stored;
* 3. Story as discoursed;
* 4. Stories as stored (potential story lines).
References
Semiotics
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