Hypertext and the scholarly archive: intertexts, paratexts and metatexts at work

ABSTRACT

With the Web, hypertext has become the paradigmatic rhetorical structure of a global and distributed archive. This paper argues that the scholarly archive is going though a process of hypertextualization that is not adequately accounted for in theories on hypertext. A methodological approach based on Gerard Genettes theory of transtextuality is proposed for a study of the hypertextualized archive. This involves a rejection of the reductionist opposition of hypertext and the fixed linear text, in favor of a study of the intertexts, paratexts and metatexts that work at the interface between texts and archive. I refer to this as second-order textuality.

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.5 INFORMATION INTERFACES AND PRESENTATION (I.7)
      H.5.4 Hypertext/Hypermedia
          Subjects: Theory

Additional Classification:
  H. Information Systems
  H.3 INFORMATION STORAGE AND RETRIEVAL
      H.3.0 General

General Terms:
Theory

Keywords:
criticism, hypertext rhetoric, intertextuality, metatext, navigation, paratext, scholarly and scientific communication, textuality, theory, web