The narrative modes of connection in hypertext
are allusion, quotation, reference, and linking. These modes open up the
narrative space and can be interpreted as "different functions of intertextuality,
just as Usenet newsgroups, electronic mailing, lists, paperback bestsellers,
and flysheet" (Aarseth 1994: 71). Therefore, Aarseth
suggests that we distinguish more adequate forms of textuality rather than
insist on the crucial distinction between traditional and electronic texts,
in particular because the seemingly textual integrity and stability of
traditional texts is not an inherent quality of the physical object "text",
but a cultural construct which is the result of
interpretation. In the words of Landow
(1992: 119): "Even within the vastness of hyperspace, the author, like
the reader-author, will find limits, and from them construct occasions
to struggle."