This innovative monograph focuses on a contemporary form of computer-based literature called 'literary hypertext', a digital, interactive, communicative form of new media writing.  Canonizing Hypertext combines theoretical and hermeneutic investigations with empirical research into the motivational and pedagogic possibilities of this form of literature.  It focuses on key questions for literary scholars and teachers: How can literature be taught in such a way as to make it relevant for an increasingly hypermedia-oriented readership? How can the rapidly evolving new media be integrated into curricula that still seek to transmit 'traditional' literary competence?  How can the notion of literary competence be broadened to take into account these current trends?  This study, which argues for hypertext's integration in the literary canon, offers a critical overview of developments in hypertext theory, an exemplary hypertext canon and an evaluation of possible classroom applications.

Astrid Ensslin is Professor of Dynamics of Virtual Communication Spaces at University of Regensburg, Germany.

Introduction

1. Hypertextual Ontologies

2. Hypertext and the Question of Canonicity

3. A Hypertext Canon
4. Literary Competence - Conceptual Adaptations

5. Hypertext in the Literature Classroom

Conclusion

Bibliography

Index