Hypertext and the Scholarly Archive

W ith th e W eb , h y per text h as b ecom e the p ar ad igm atic r h eto rical s tr u ctu r e o f a g lo bal and d istr ibu ted ar ch iv e. Th is pap er ar g ues that th e s ch o lar ly ar ch iv e is g o ing tho u g h a p r ocess o f h y p ertextu alization that is n o t ad eq uately acco u n ted f o r in th eo r ies on h y per text. A m eth od o log ical ap p ro ach b ased o n G er ar d Gen ette’ s th eo r y o f tr an stextu ality is p r o p o sed f or a stu d y o f th e h yp er tex tu alized ar chiv e. Th is in v o lv es a r ejection o f th e red u ctio n is t o pp o s itio n of h yp er tex t an d th e f ix ed linear tex t, in f av o r of a s tu d y o f th e inter texts , p aratex ts an d m etatex ts th at w o rk at th e in terf ace b etw een texts and ar ch iv e. I ref er to this as s eco n do r d er textu ality .