The sense of a link: hypermedia, hermeneutics, and the teaching of critical methodologies

Abstract

Despite the often-celebrated affinities between hypertext and literary theory, the need persists for on-line learning environments that are effective in encouraging students of literature to explore the complex relationships among primary texts, critical methodologies, and theoretical frameworks. The CriticaLink project at the University of Hawaii seeks to produce a web-based hypermedia system for use in introductory courses in literary-critical methodology and literary theory. Through a presentation of CriticaLink, this article outlines a set of guiding principles for courseware development in literary studies. Taking up the key concept of the link as a distinguishing structural feature both of hypermedia and of the experience and analysis of literature, the essay identifies four senses of the link which literary studies courseware should address: (i) the phenomenological link between reader and text; (ii) the semantic, rhetorical, and thematic connections that produce poetic meaning; (iii) the methodological link between a framework of understanding and the object of knowledge; and (iv) the practical question of whether it makes sense to develop hypermedia materials for the teaching of literary-critical methods. Each of these domains suggests the potential of hypermedia to facilitate the teaching of various approaches to literary analysis, and at the same time poses serious challenges to hypermedia applications in this field.