New plots for hypertext?: towards poetics of a hypertext node

Abstract

While the significance of hypertext links for the new ways of telling stories has been widely discussed, there has been not many debates about the very elements that are being connected: hypertext nodes. Apart from few exceptions, poetics of the link overshadows poetics of the node. My goal is to re-focus on a single node, or lexia, by introducing the concept of contextual regulation as the major force that shapes hypertext narrative units. Because many lexias must be capable of occurring in different contexts and at different stages of the unfolding story, several compromises have to be made on the level of language, style, plot and discourse. Each node, depending on its position and importance, has a varying level of connectivity and autonomy, which affects the global coherence of text. After focusing on relations between the notion of lexia (as a coherent and flexible unit) and the notion of kernel in narrative theory, an explanation of rules behind contextual regulation is presented, along with the basic typology of nodes. Then an attempt to enhance existing plot pools for hypertext fiction is undertaken. Several suggestions for the new plots, offered by the node-centered approach, are introduced.