Readership Studies In Hypertext Literature

The development of digital technology has gradually placed humanity in the post-human situation.The emergence of virtual reality installations and strong interactive art forms has caused people to lose their subjectivity in digital immersion and become cyber prisoners who are "disembodied".In the above-mentioned technological context,there is an urgent need for humanity to find its own way in the digital virtual environment.Hypertext literature is the core of digital literature,the initial form of convergence of the literary kernel and the technological form,and the initial form of digital interactive literature.The reader of hypertext literary begins to have difference from the reader of traditional literary in terms of character and experience,and is in a transitional state between the two by being close to the interactive and immersive subject of current digital technologies.George P.Landow is well known as the first generation of classical hypertext theorists,and his theoretical research is comprehensive and far-reaching;his writings on the convergence of hypertext and postmodern theories are inspirational to later hypertext research.Landow examines in detail the role of hypertext in reshaping literary authorship,narrative,text,and writing.Although the readership study is the focus of Landow’s research of hypertextual theory,it is not examined in a dedicated chapter.Sorting through Landow’s ideas about readers of hypertext literature in Landow’s theory of hypertext can help to further understand Landow’s idea of hypertext.Examining the ways in which readers of hypertext literature are shaped,their new roles,functional scope and aesthetic experience,it is useful to reflect on the current situation of human beings as media endpoints in cyberspace,and to consider the possible future of us.In terms of readership,the "authorial reader" proposed by Joyce and Landow and others is just an ideal envisage.Considering the limited power of the reader in practice,it should be positioned as a collaborative author.In terms of reader’s function,hypertextual literary readers are interactive subjects who interact with the text by exploring and choosing paths.Since it is almost impossible for readers of hypertext literature to produce or modify texts directly,Landow’s claim of an "invasion" seems overstated.In terms of reader experience,hypertextual literature readers experience a sense of immersion and disorientation in their reading.Since hypertext literature is a hybrid form of traditional literature and digital technology,the immersion of the hypertext reader also lies somewhere between traditional literature and digital media,as an incomplete immersion.In today’s digital technologies,the identity of the "w-reader" is further broadened,and the intensity of interactivity is further enhanced,and the digital immersion provided by virtual reality technology is further deepened.Readers of hypertext literature can shed light on the human condition in the current environment in terms of coping with disorientation,combating immersion,and holding fast to the bottom line.