AUTHOR-READER INTERACTIONS IN THE AGE OF HYPERTEXTUAL AND MULTIMEDIA COMMUNICATION
AUTHOR-READER INTERACTIONS IN THE AGE OF HYPERTEXTUAL AND MULTIMEDIA COMMUNICATION

Summary/Abstract: Building on new hypermedia technologies that enhance discursive interaction, this article emphasizes the role that rereading and rewriting can play in the current computer-saturated environment. The article addresses cognitive and pedagogical issues in the transition from traditional, often linear modes of reading and writing, to multilevel and interactive modes of rereading/rewriting. The very definition and role of authors and readers changes within this collaborative and interactive paradigm. Writers engage in a dynamic, open-ended process of semiosis, producing multiple textual variants; readers move from linear, uncritical reading to multilevel and interactive modes of rereading that take into account a text's complexity as well as the relationship among author, culture, and reader. These shifts have been aided by the new hypertext and networked communication technologies that have emerged over the past two to three decades. Anticipated by late modernist experiments in collage and linking, computer networking technologies have served well the goal of introducing an interactive component in the writing and interpretation of literature. However, before we can derive the intended benefits from these new technologies, we need to interrogate their limitations. Rather than use these electronic technologies to reinforce old habits of reading and writing, we should take full advantage of the fact that they can enhance the dialogic aspect of our cultural transactions, providing us with the interactive cultural space that emphasizes collaboration and reformulation.

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