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Reflections and predictions of technology's effect on reading and writing

Table of Contents

Series Preface -- Ray Siemens and Susan Schreibman   vii
1. Introduction   1
2. In the Beginning Was the Ear   5
3. Writing and the Fixation of Thought   8
4. The Power of the Written Sign   10
5. Writing and Orality   12
6. Standards of Readability   15
7. Linearity and Tabularity   22
8. Toward the Tabular Text   28
9. Meaning and Effect   40
10. Filters in Reading   49
11. Textuality: Form and Substance   52
12. Textual Connections   56
13. Instances of Utterance   59
14. From Interactivity to the Pseudo-Text   63
15. Varieties of Hypertext   70
16. Context and Hypertext   77
17. The Limitations of Lists   80
18. Aporias of Hyperfiction   82
19. Reading Images   87
20. The Writer and Images   94
21. The Rise of the Visual   97
22. The Period, the Pause, and the Emoticon   102
23. Op. cit.   105
24. The Reader: User or Consumer of Signs/   108
25. Intensive and Extensive Reading, or the Rights of the Reader   112
26. Metaphors for Reading   116
27. Representations of the Book   119
28. The Role of the Publisher   121
29. The CD-ROM and Nostalgia for teh Papyrus Scroll   123
30. Giving the Reader Control   125
31. Text and Interactivity   129
32. Managing Hyperlinks   131
33. I Click, Therefore I Read   133
34. The End of the Page?   136
35. On the Fragment   143
36. The Body of the Text   146
37. The Decline of the Novel   149
38. The Rise of the Blog   152
39. A Culture of Participation and Sharing   155
40. Toward the Universal Digital Library   159

Notes   167
References   177
Index   187

About the Author

Christian Vandendorpe is professor of lettres françaises at the University of Ottawa. His publications include Les défis de la publication sur le web: hyperlectures, cybertextes et méta-éditions and other works. Phyllis Aronoff and Howard Scott live and translate in Montreal, Quebec.

Reviews

"A well-written, pedagogical reflection on the historical, theoretical, and practical position of hypertexts as a new medium of communication. The advanced reader will enjoy the limpid presentation of what we now understand about hypertext; the reader new to the field will have a very readable introduction to what makes it exciting." William Winder, co-editor of Computing in the Humanities Working Papers "A wonderful series of short essays on the nature of text as it has been affected by the digital revolution. Vandendorpe is a careful and intelligent observer of a profound shift in textual behavior." William Barker, president, University of King's College, and professor of English, Dalhousie University, Halifax