The Research Of Hypertext Literature

I study the hypertext literature as a separate object in this dissertation which focuses mainly on the ontological characteristics and the new varieties of it. In researching of the ontological characteristics of hypertext, the study has divided into three crucial aspects:existing form, aesthetic characteristics and unique representation, and pays much attention on examination of its association with the traditional literature at the same time. On this basis, then I analyze its changes and transcendency of traditional literature, on the one hand, hypertext remodels and changes the "four elements" and its internal structure; On the other hand, in context of the digital media, the extension of "four elements" need to be expanded accordingly, and even develops from the "four elements" to "five elements", that is, the introducing of media as a new element which leads to a new paradigm of literary study. At the end of writing, I prospect for the future of literature. Because of the carrier and limitation of hypertext literature itself, it cannot completely replace the traditional literature, and will become a brilliant part of the further literature. Paper is divided into five chapters:Chapter I is about the discussion of definition of hypertext literature. By adopting the definition of Li Shunxing, hypertext literature is a new type of literature which means containing "non-printing" component and issued digitally. The representative examples of non-printing literature include movie, text, hyperlink and interactive reading etc. On this basis, the paper retrospected "quasi-hypertext" of paper media, as the counterpart of hypertext literature, which can be roughly divided into four categories:words landscaping, multidirectional, interactive and multimedia type. These four types are not only independent, but inherent "intertextual" mutually.Chapter II analyzes the aesthetic characteristic of hypertext literature and combs through the related theory resources. The aesthetic characteristic of hypertext literature includes two sides of the implicit and the explicit, the implicit characteristic is the deep structure of hypertext which essentially is a non-linear simultaneous structure; the explicit characteristic is the external presentation of the hypertext that embodies in three aspects, the form of presentation is the text universe of intertextuality, the way of presentation is the subject participation of interactivity, the result of presentation is the aesthetic effects of performance. The hypertextuality have the inextricable relations with the western post-modern literature theory and Chinese traditional esthetics, corresponds to the western post-modern theory, node is similar to the "star" and "plateau", link is a nonlinear collage or montage, but the web is leading to "ideal text"; The hypertextuality also closely related to Chinese traditional aesthetics,"Shensi"(神思)is essentially a non-linear intuitiveness perception, the "You"(游) is similar to the surfing of the intertextuality and interactivity, but the "Dao"(道) implies the reading experience of the uncertainty and ambiguity. However, hypertextuality and the western post-modern theory are consistent and corresponding on the concept of text, but with the association of Chinese traditional aesthetics focus on the similarity in the concept of thinking, so when corresponding to the text itself, the former obviously reflects the logical consistency, but the latter embodies the extension of the concept.Chapter Ⅲ mainly explores the media features of hypertext literature. The digital media involving in writing reflect truly the specificity of hypertext literature, and its three core points that is link, node and structure show the unique features. This specificity of media are not only a kind of pure medium technique, but closely related with the literariness and thus become a "significant form". The first is the link, which can be divided into functional link and rhetorical link according to two levels of the structure and semantics. Secondly is the node, the physical characteristics highlight "No":no form, unlimited copy, modification, mobility and non-distant communication, which directly lead to the "unfinishing" of the text in the physical and technical of the hypertext literature; the existing characteristics is essentially a kind of nonmaterial existence, which easily produce an uncertain, immersive experience about the literature effects. The last is the structure, in short, the accessing form of hypertext is a sort of database structure, and there are three specific types, that is, the network structure, the layered text and comprehensive three-dimensional structure.Based on the foregoing three chapters, Chapter Ⅳ and Ⅴ give a further excavation on the transition and transformation from the traditional literature to the hypertext literature. Chapter IV focus on the analysis about the new variations of Abrams’"Four Elements of Literary Criticism", which be described the transformation of the nature of universe, the deconstruction of the subject of author, the transmutation of the existence of works, and the change of reading model. More specifically, the world change from the reality to virtuality, the virtualization of hypertext literature is embodied concentratedly in the immersion and interactivity revealed by itself. The profound changes in authorship are showed by the appearance of multi-author or co-operator, the juxtaposition of personal writing and team production, and the mix of the death of author and the rebirth of them. The existence pattern of the work embodies three evolution, namely from the static state to the dynamic state, from single-layer to multi-layer, from the written language to the visual language. In accordance with these, the conversion of the reading model of hypertext occurs, those are the birth of the "wreader", the new reading model of immediate links, and the development of new nomadic reading experience.The last chapter is a theoretical analysis about the paradigm cnversion of hypertext literature. In the new context, the visual medium turns from the preferred theory to ontology, which participates in the literary creation itself instead of as a tool of information promulgation, which causes the shift of the literary paradigm. So Abrams’"Four Elements of Literary Criticism" become "Five Elements" include of the medium. Limited to the historical context, he cannot realize this. This paper deals with the study with superposition method in a literary activity paradigm with more universal meaning., by which to integrate the ontology medium which generates the literary paradigm of hypertext and the organon medium which fall into the same category of traditional literary paradigm. This conversion causes the vicissitude of "literariness" directly, literature achieve the transcendence from the aesthetic level to the linguistic level, eventually it will lead to the literature of the2nd kind of meaning as Mr. Miller asserts.