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  Definition
  Characteristics: multiple links, multiple entry, multimedia (+ animation),  fragmentary, electronic (vs. print)

II. Hypertext and Postmodern Theories

• Hypertext exemplifies and extends post-structuralist theories about text (and textuality), language and reading; such as those of Mikhail Bakhtin (heteroglossia), Roland Barthes (writable text, which has no fixed boundary, can be broken down to several lexias, and allows readers to choose their own route in reading), Jacque Derrida (dissemination of meaning) and Deleuze (nomad, grass-like associative thinking).
• Hypertext embodies postmodern challenge of authorship and originaliy, boundary and totality.

• Hyperfiction -- story fragments, multiple choices in reading, or readers' collective product;
• Hyperpoem -- mostly visual poems, in which words are images, or images are used to enhance the poetic meanings.
• Arts Turned Multimedia or a Game  -- All kinds of arts, encoded as 0 and 1, are easily connected, combined or mixed together.

• Textual Production: random and expansive (Stuart Moulthrop)
• Reading: surfing and playing games, but not close reading
• Public Good vs. Limited Access and Invisible Centers: Free access is not possible yet (under the influence of capitalism); at the centers are those who own a server, have access to one, and those who have knowledge of managing a server or producing hypertext.