Lexia (hypertext)

This article is about a chunk of text or a node in a literary hypertext. For other uses, see Lexia (disambiguation).

In Hypertext, a lexia (Greek: λέξις, ‘diction, word’) is a text unit that links to other lexia, corresponding to a node in a network. This use of the term was introduced by George Landow, and was based on Roland Barthes' use of lexia in S/Z to refer "units of reading". The term is used in scholarship on hypertext, although node is often used synonymously.

Barthes defines lexia as a "series of brief, contiguous fragments, which we shall call call lexia, since they are units of reading".^[1] These are not necessarily present in the text before it is read, and can be "arbitrary, but useful" in analysis.^[1]

In hypertext, on the other hand, lexia are units of text that are separated from other lexia. The reader must usually click a link to move from one lexia to the next.

George Landow, writing in 1992, was one of the first scholars to analyse literary hypertexts. The term lexia was a key term for him in developing his theoretical and analytical approach to the new genre of hypertext fiction. Landow defined hypertext thus: "Hypertext, as the term will be used in the following pages, denotes text composed of blocks of text — what Barthes terms a lexia — and the electronic links that join them."^[2]

Scholars have noted that Landow actually uses the term lexia quite differently from Barthes.^[3]

References

1. Barthes, Roland (1974). S/Z. Translated by Miller, Richard. Blackwell. p. 13.
2. Landow, George P. (1992). Hypertext : the convergence of contemporary critical theory and technology. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. p. 4. ISBN 0-8018-4280-8. OCLC 23973011.
3. Mukherjee, Souvik (2015). Video games and storytelling : reading games and playing books. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire. pp. 51–52. ISBN 978-1-137-52505-5. OCLC 919436566.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)

See also

• Hypertext fiction
• Cybertext