No more than a heap of letters : The Cognitive Mapping of Hypertext Literature

If you have ever wanted to cut up a narrative and patch it back together in a new order; if you have ever thought about the implications of singular linearity on literature and the thought process; or if you have ever wondered if the mind might favor a more associative, linkage based form of reading literature, then you may know of hypertext. Through a discussion of criticism ranging from post-structuralism to constructivism, I will argue that hypertext literature, specifically Michael Joyce\u27s afternoon, a story and Shelley Jackson\u27s Patchwork Girl, maps narratives like those the mind creates when forming and reading the text of one\u27s reality and memory.