Technotropes of liberation: Reading hypertext in the age of theory

This dissertation examines hypertext computer technology and computer writing practices in relation to contemporary critical theories of postmodernism, writing and response and feminism. Hypertext, a powerful computer technology, allows the non-linear linking of texts and information into a web-like structure. On the surface, this structure resembles postmodernist theoretical principles describing decentered texts and intertextuality. Contemporary scholarship and the mass media alike have represented hypertext as quintessentially postmodern because of its indeterminate structure and its encouragement of readers to become writers of the text. These claims, however, demonstrate very little about actual hypertext literate practices--namely, the production and consumption of specific hypertext compositions. While hypertext is an increasingly important writing technology for the computer classroom, no composition scholarship explores the cultural contexts and literate practices surrounding this technology in any depth. No published studies ask how people read and write hypertext in electronic social spaces, or how these technological tools mediate composing processes carried out in particular contexts. These are the questions, crucial to composition studies, and crucial to defining relationships between technology and lived culture, that I take up in this study.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

English

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2011

Author dc:creator

• Hocks, Mary Elizabeth

Contributors dc:contributor

• Hawisher, Gail E.
• Parker, Robert D.

• Language, General
• Computer Science

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 1994 Hocks, Mary Elizabeth

Language dc:language

eng

Identifier

AAI9512396
(UMI)AAI9512396

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/19129