In his most recent film ‘Eloge de l’amour’, French filmmaker, Jean-Luc Godard muses as to whether history, historical understanding, is being replaced by technology? (*) In order to answer, or even engage in such a question, one must ask what is the role of history? Is it to enrich understandings and give us insight into cultural, personal and collective memories, or is it about archiving knowledge? Is there a difference between these? Depending whether one believes technology enhances or hinders connections to history, hypertext is either an empowering or distracting concept. Hypertext is a concept based upon fragmented, non-linear narratives, a form of text that takes the focus away from the original author and empowers the reader, forces or enables them to make their own connections, to follow their own thoughts to their own conclusions. This then raises questions about the importance of narratives in history- do disconnected or interrupted narratives detract or even matter to historical understanding? Is history- historical knowledge- dependent upon a linear narrative and development of argument?

Next:

• Theories of Hypertext
• Theory Vs Reality
• Hpertext: the Paradigm Shift
• History and Hypertext: the role of the narrative
• CNN
• PBS
• Hyper-media
• Conclusions
• Footnotes