Hypertext in literary art as a technology and as a metaphor. An example from "Endless Dead End" by D.E. Galkovsky.

Deikun Il'ya Dmitrievich ORCID: 0009-0002-9809-1010 Independent researcher Office 405, Miusskaya pl., 6, Moscow, 125047, Russia iliariy@mail.ru Other publications by this author

Introduction

The concept of hypertext as a software-based system of logical and associative connections between different documents and as a result of this connection is widely used in the analysis of fiction, especially that which belongs to the postmodern era. However, the breadth of use of the concept conceals the specifics of the phenomenon being designated, allowing researchers to interpret almost any nonlinear narratives, narratives with instructions for reading, with a hypertrophied scientific reference apparatus, works representing a series of variants, works interspersed with various literary and non-literary genres, etc. as hypertext. At the same time, additional ambiguity is attached to the study of hypertext by the existence of a concept identical in word form, but completely different in meaning, of a translitual connection of semantic processing, transformation by one artistic text of another — hypertextuality, during which, based on the hypotext (previous text), a hypertext (supertext) is formed: pastiche, parody, palimpsest text. In this article, having indicated that there is this problematic homonymy, we will turn not to it itself, because of the distinct difference in the meanings of homonyms, it simply assumes parallel, however compatible, research paradigms, but to the very concept of computer hypertext in its application to fiction. We will give a brief outline of the appearance of this concept in Russian-language scientific discourse, in works devoted to computer science and library and bibliographic activities, provide a number of primary and normative definitions, as well as characterize the transformation that this concept undergoes when included in literary analysis, and characterize how one or another interpretation of the concept affects literary interpretation.. In order to understand exactly what hypertext is in fiction, we will try to work out a rule for defining the semantics of a concept, without hypertrophy of its individual components, and point to an exemplary reference in the form of D.E. Galkovsky's work “Endless Dead End”, but not in a printed version or in the form of an electronic book, namely in the form of A website that appeared in the late 1990s and still exists in parallel with text documents and paper editions of the Endless Dead End.

Research methods

The object of this research is the work of D.E. Galkovsky “The Endless Dead End" in its three medial realizations: in the form of a hypertext website, in the form of an electronic PDF book with hypertext links, and as part of a paper periodical published in a literary journal. The subject of the research is hypertext as a form of software-enabled document communication and its result. The main objective of the research is to clarify the concept of hypertext in literary analysis. To solve it, we will, firstly, use the method of the history of concepts to point out the prerequisites for the breadth of interpretations that is formed when using the concept of hypertext in literary research. Secondly, using the method of semantic analysis, we will formulate a number of the main features of hypertext, identify the general scientific and literary consensus of understanding hypertext included in it, expressed in research papers. Thirdly, based on the theory of media and the position of the receptive aesthetics of presence, we will analyze the significance for the “Endless Dead end” of its material realization in a document, in the form of a website, in the form of a separate paper edition. Finally, using the method of empirical comparison of different medial realizations of the “Endless Dead End” and their poetic and hermeneutic interpretation, we will demonstrate how this or that version of the work's realization meets the criteria of hypertext.

Results and discussion

The concept of “hypertext" in Russian-language scientific discourse appeared around the 1970s in research at the intersection of text linguistics and computer science. For example, in O.A. Lavrenova's dissertation (1978), following the thesis that “a formalized description of the meaning of a text is currently one of the main and most promising tasks of theoretical linguistics ...”, the definition of hypertext is given in quotation marks with reference to the author of this concept, T. Nelson: it becomes possible “...the construction of an array of nonlinear information in computer memory, a consolidated system of knowledge contained in the entire array of texts, i.e. the so-called “hypertext”” ^{[1, p. 3]}. Other works of the same time, mainly dissertations or specialized articles, also use this concept in the context of problems of information retrieval, optimal form presentations of scientific information in conditions of its abundance and to facilitate scientific communication. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, research interpretations distinguished two types of definition of hypertext with different semantic dominants. In some cases, the emphasis is placed on the nonlinearity of the resulting array of text data, for example: “Hypertext (nonlinear text) is a new type of information models [...] At certain points of such a branching multidimensional text structure, movement (navigation) can continue in several different directions” ^{[2, p. 11]}; in others, on technology, providing a link between texts, for example: “nowadays we are witnessing the rapid development of a new type of information technology - hypertext, which allows us to navigate full-text databases and other machine-readable texts in an unconventional way without the help of keywords" ^{[3, p. 36]}. From these quotations it can be seen that hypertext was conceived precisely in relation to the ways of organizing scientific information presented in a multitude of individual texts, and not as a type of composition of an artistic work.

This is an important observation, since the epistemological generalization, which appeared much later, is now widespread, that “the idea of a “dialogue” (M.M. Bakhtin), the principle of deconstruction (J. Derrida), the language of the unconscious (J. Lacan), the concept of the rhizome (J. Deleuze, F. Guattari), the concept of an “open” text (U. Ivf)” ^{[4, p. 72]}. This association of post-structuralist thought and hypertext forms the background of the modern consensus understanding of hypertext in scientific humanitarian discourse, which apparently was finally formed in the 2010s. Thus, one of the most recent textbooks, “Theory and Practice of Hypertext Communication” by V.V. Trifonova (2022), does not contain references in the bibliography to works on hypertext written later than 2017, while all English-language references date back to the 1980s and 1990s ^{[5, pp. 64-69]}. The same is observed in the latest articles by S.A. Stroikov, N.I. Nikitina (2025) ^[6], I.B. Ignatova (2024) ^[7], K.V. Zeynalova (2024) ^[8], where there is not a single reference to monographs or dissertations on hypertext written later than 2009.

The issue of the “conservativeness” of bibliographic references in Russian hypertext research is beyond the scope of this article. It is only important for us to point out the existence of a certain research culture, starting from the premise of the connection between postmodern consciousness and hypertext, which allows us to move away from the computer nature of hypertext. Thus, according to V.V. Trifonova, “French poststructuralists record changes in the structure of the text”, which only “with the advent of technological capabilities of the digital environment” became “possible to implement” ^{[5, p. 6]}. It is as if the paradigm shift in understanding the text from a closed unity to an infinity of cultural interconnections was provoked only by the purely avant-garde writing practices of the 1960s. Similarly, K.V. Zeynalova in 2024, on the one hand, writes that “hypertext literature fully corresponds to the definition of an ideal text” according to R. Barth, and on the other hand, quotes from S/Z: “an ideal text is permeated by a network of innumerable, intertwining internal passages...” ^{[8, p. 144]}, — works devoted to the scrupulous analysis of O. de Balzac's novella “Sarrazin” (1830), a classic linear text.

We suggest that you pay attention to the fact that when introducing the concept of hypertext in 1965, programmer and visionary T. Nelson thinks about something else entirely: “First, complex file structures ... allow you to create new ways of their presentation (new media), hypertext and hyperfilm.” And further: “Let me introduce the word “hypertext” to denote a set of written or pictographic material connected in such a complex way that it cannot be adequately reproduced on paper" ^{[9, p. 96]}. The written version of this report contains a reference to W. Bush, who traces the origins of hypertext not only to an earlier time (1945), but also deeper into information issues: in the Memex project, W. Bush sought to conveniently represent information to facilitate and optimize the researcher's work. Thus, we see that the primary uses of the concept of “hypertext” in Russian science are at the same time the most consistent with the philosophy implicitly assumed by the original concept in English-language scientific discourse.

Let us now turn to the first literary usage. Ironically, one of the earliest uses of the word form “hypertext” in literary criticism was the use of a homonym by A.K. Zholkovsky, which denotes not a way of organizing information and its computer presentation, but a connection between the transformation of the meaning of one artistic work by another, subsequent one. Moreover, in Babel (1994), the concept of ”hypertext“ is used by a scientist only once without any clarification of what exactly is meant, and even without direct references to the author of the concept. Jeanette. J. Himself. Genette introduces “hypertextualité" (hypertextuality) in Palimpsestes: La Litterature au second degre (1982), 17 years later than T. Nelson, defining it as “a relationship that unites text B (which I would call “hypertext") with early text A (which I would call, of course, hypotext), to which this text is “grafted", and further: “this is a text derived from another text" ^{[10, p. 5]}. Leaving aside the question of whether J. Genette is familiar with T. Nelson's innovation, I must say that in his system of translitual connections — including intertext, metatext, architecttext, paratext and hypertext itself — the intention to build a comprehensive paradigm of textual connections dominated over the intention to take into account possible interdisciplinary inclusions. It should also be borne in mind that at the time of J. Genetta hypertext in the Nelsonian sense may not yet have been included in the interpretative tools of literary researchers. The same, again with the caveat “perhaps", applies to the use of the concept by A.K. Zholkovsky.

One of the first uses of the Nelson concept in relation to a literary text was carried out by the famous Russian linguist Yu.D. Apresyan (1995) when analyzing the structure of the novel “The Gift” by V.V. Nabokov. The researcher writes about the novel that its “powerful polyphony does not fit into the usual framework of the concepts of aesthetic and existential, metaphysical and mystical, literature and literary studies ... The concept of hypertext would be most suitable for characterizing its formal structure, but it differs from what is usually called hypertext by ideal, though not obvious consistency and the harmony of the texts included in it” ^{[11, p. 676]}. It is noteworthy how immediately and without any reason, again in a single use and without reference to any similar use in literary criticism, the meaning of the concept expands to the possible limit. Hypertext turns out to be a form of a novel that includes, in the case of The Gift, texts of various genres: quotations from poems, reviews, part of the historical and biographical work of the character, Godunov-Cherdyntsev, a narrative about the life of this character. The work of a scientist opens up the possibility to easily call hypertext any literary work, fragments or whole chapters of which make up texts of different literary genres, and in which fictitious commentary is present. Many classical works turn out to be hypertext, from “Russian Nights” (1844) by V.F. Odoevsky to “Pushkin's House” (1978) by A.G. Bitov. It is important for us to note that the use of the concept by Yu.D. Apresyan in his interpretation of “Gift” is based on the hypertrophy of the component “connection between different texts” in the semantic structure of the concept.

Another example, as extreme as it is illustrative in a bad way, of the innovative use of the concept of hypertext is found in the PhD thesis of N.A. Fedorova (2008). According to the researcher: “Hypertext is a text divided into lexicons that are clearly noticeable, and at the same time reading hypertext implies their combinatorics” ^{[12, p. 6]}. The concept of “vocabulary”, which has not taken root in Russian science (tracing paper from lexia) by N.A. Fedorova is taken from the English-language theory of hypertext: a lexicon is a fragment containing a hyperlink to another fragment ^{[13, p. 4]}. This concept, in turn, is borrowed from R. Barth's work “S/Z”, where it means “a series of short, adjacent fragments” representing “units of reading“ ^{[14, p. 57]}, and in the Russian translation of 2001 ”lexia“ is given by tracing paper "lexia".

But in N.A. Fedorov's research, after defining the “hypertextual form” as a text that possesses only part, but not all, of the properties of hypertext, while having a genetic relationship with it” ^{[12, p. 6]}. he focuses on literally any literature except that which would be similar to hypertext: on Lettrist poetry and prose, on medieval and ancient figurative poetry, on kinetic poetry, on handwritten books by avant-gardists, etc. One could consider this work a hoax, but it was apparently really protected, and even at the prestigious A.I. Herzen Russian State Pedagogical University. It is possible, however, that the abstract does not reflect the true content of the dissertation. It is important for us to note that in N.A. Fedorova's use of the concept of hypertext, there is a return to the concept of R. Barth, but with vague associations with something that is the idea of hypertext, that is, there is a very specific involution.

The two examples above are illustrative and instructive. But they also point out that hypertext can be a metaphor, or rather, that literary interpretation from the very beginning needed the metaphor of hypertext when analyzing twentieth-century works. MSU Professor O.V. Dedova drew attention to this in her doctoral dissertation ”Linguistic semiotic analysis of electronic Hypertext“ (2006), and in the subsequent monograph "Hypertext Theory and Hypertext Practices in Runet" (2008). Thus, she notes that “the specifics of electronic hypertext and the consequences of its spread can be understood using different parallels: the invention of the machine by I. Gutenberg, the library as a phenomenon of world civilization ... the encyclopedia (as an example of precomputer hypertext)...” ^{[15, p. 11]} — that is, the research moves familiar from the above quotations are characterized as using the concept of “hypertext" metaphorically. But O.V. Dedova takes an important step further, she generally characterizes the totality of research ideas about hypertext expressed through such metaphors as a mythologeme, they “turn hypertext into one of the mythologies of modern consciousness" ^{[15, p. 11]}. Of course, the unspecified use of a metaphor is a gross mistake, and the studies listed above by Yu.D. Apresyan (although secondary and not related to the main specialty of the academician), and especially the dissertation by N.A. Fedorova, confuse the situation and multiply the entities unnecessarily. You should pay attention to this.

On the other hand, a clear definition of hypertext is required in the new context of homonymy and interdisciplinary concept transfer. It is given by O.V. Dedova, as well as I.R. Cooper. O.V. Dedova's definition is as follows: hypertext is “a model of electronic text organization characterized by a specific structure and an extensive system of programmatically supported intra—textual and inter-textual transitions, suggesting the possibility of reader interactive influence on the sequence of reproduction of compositional units" ^{[15, p. 11]}. In this definition, we will identify four criteria for hypertext: a) the organization model (more on this below), b) the “electronic text”, that is, the text on the screen in analog form reproduced by a specific program, c) the transition system in such a text, that is, the link software, d) the reader's influence, changing the sequence of reproduction. composite units, that is, clicking on links. Of course, there is a combinatorial element in such a transition, but far from it; there is a connection between heterogeneous and diverse texts, but far from it. Yes, as almost all researchers point out, hypertext technology is rooted in postmodern consciousness, but this concept cannot be extended to all more or less “nonlinear” artifacts of this consciousness. Let's return to the above—mentioned parameter “a”, to the moment of O.V. Dedova's definition, which implies that “hypertext” is primarily a “model of organization". It seems to us that I.R. Cooper, comparing different definitions of hypertext, makes a good move, saying that hypertext can be understood as both a “method of combining documents" and “a text organized in a special way" ^{[16, p. 48]}, that is, we would clarify, only and only according to the method and in the form of hypertext communication. Thus, we dare to expand the definition of O.V. Dedova, saying that it is not only “an information space that allows to destroy the formal isolation of a separate, specific text” ^{[15, p. 9]}, but also the text itself, which is possible only in this space. If we make a mistake in this extension, it is in order to point out that only through such a maximally moderate extension is it possible to use the concept of “hypertext” non-metaphorically in relation to fiction.

Researchers see both hypertext and hypertextuality in D.E. Galkovsky's “Endless Dead End.” Thus, the author of a monograph that has not yet lost its relevance, which is entirely devoted to this novel, S.P. Orobiy writes: “Special attention should be paid to the issue of the hypertext structure of the Endless Dead End. The poetics of notes and commentary are naturally correlated with modernist and postmodern texts of the twentieth century...” ^{[17, p. 82]}. Here you can see how the association of hypertext nonlinearity and a network of notes occurs, obviously motivated by the very subject of the study: the novel-commentary. While the commentary has nothing to do with hypertext, rather the novel commentary of the end of the twentieth century is focused on Internet hypertext. Another study also states, with references to the dissertation of N.A. Fedorova, which we have already criticized, and to a student article by A.A. Plekhanova, that “hypertextuality” is the organizing principle of the commentary novel ^{[18, p. 53]}, while the researcher herself, V.A. Kurnitskaya, also refers to the "hypertext version” ^{[18, p. 54]}. However, the transition from “hypertext” to “hypertext version” has not been conceptualized in any way. There is no answer to the question of how the “hypertextuality” of the latter differs from other versions of the novel, or from other commentary novels, from the “hypertextuality” of non-linear novels, such as the “Classic Game” by H. Cortazar.

Of course, these are extreme examples, but all the more clearly there is a need to find out what hypertext in fiction is based on the material of a novel that is recognized as “hypertext” both in monographs and in short scientific reports.

To do this, it is necessary to provide a conceptual basis for the aforementioned non-reflexive transition from “Hypertextuality” to the “hypertext version” of D.E. Galkovsky's “Endless Dead End”, and consider the work in its three medial realizations. By “mediality" we mean the difference between the media of a work related to its material presentation and influencing its meaning and significance. As H.W. Gumbrecht noted, speaking about the new understanding of the role of means of communication: “we no longer believed that a complex of meanings could be separated from its mediality, that is, from those differences associated with its appearance on a printed page, on a computer screen, or in an oral utterance" ^{[19, p. 24]}. “The Endless Dead End“, the full name of which is “Notes to the Endless Dead End”, is a work consisting of 949 notes to a work about V.V. Rozanov, entitled “The Endless Dead End". This work itself is included in the main text as an appendix, usually after the notes. Regarding the mediality and history of publications, the author of the “Preface to the first Edition” in the electronic edition of the Endless Dead End writes: “In the early 90s, excerpts from this work were published in more than twenty periodicals, including Novy Mir, Smena, Kontinent...”^{[20, p. 31]}. After the publication of the work, its fragments caused great resonance, and the phrase “endless dead end” became a metaphor for time (this is evidenced by the nature of the phrase's use in philosophical texts of the 1990s). However, this fragmentary published “Endless Dead End” cannot be called hypertext in any way. If we look at the publication in Novy Mir (1992, No. 9), we will see that the notes selected by the editor A.V. Vasilevsky make up a fragmentary but thematically holistic narrative about the father with some philosophical and metareflexive digressions: almost all the notes from the “Big Dead End” are taken, which are autobiographical and where the father is mentioned, that is, about 1/20 of the product. As a result, the resulting material is a new work, namely, in accordance with the magazine title, “Endless Dead End. Fragments of the book.” This work is included in the ensemble of the ninth issue of the magazine, in tune with the above fragmentary prose by S. Zalygin. This is not hypertext in the strict sense, not hypertext in our careful expansion, but also this text cannot be regarded as falling under the metaphor of hypertext. The data about the fragments of the work is indicated in parentheses, for example: “(36. note to No. 30.)” ^{[21, p. 81]} — interconnected, form some kind of branching system (several lines are created from the published notes: note No. 6 goes to No. 22, No. 22 goes to No. 104, which goes to No. 152, etc., but, for example, note No. 9, No. 103, No. 310, etc. they form separate “appendages”), but they do not imply a reader's influence. The “fragments“ are rather the result of the interaction between the editor and the author, and perhaps represent one of the ”tracks“ of reading ”Endless Dead End" by A.V. Vasilevsky himself.

Let's turn to the electronic PDF edition of The Endless Dead End, the fourth edition in 2021. This document contains the text of the notes in book format. The only thing that distinguishes this edition from a digitized paper book is that individual words and numbers in the book's table of contents, as well as in the sections of the reference apparatus, have an active programmatically provided link to another fragment of this book, most often to the note number. Thus, at first glance, this publication, according to the criterion of having a software-based transition system, falls under the criterion of hypertext. The same system seems to provide a reader's impact on the text, and if you approach the document quite formally, then it can actually exist only in electronic form. Nevertheless, it should be recognized that this PDF document is not a hypertext according to O.V. Dedova, since it is a single document that exists independently from the network.“The Internet”; it will not be hypertext in our expansion either, since it is not the result of a hypertext method that is only possible virtually. Functionally, the link here is not a transition to the “page” of the text on the screen, but simply an easy transition to the hardware pointer: when replacing the interactive link with the page number, only the speed of the reader's access will change. On the contrary, such a complete representation of all the notes of the “Endless Dead End” certainly falls under the metaphor of hypertext, one has only to look at the diagram located on the penultimate page of the PDF document, representing a tree graph ^{[20, p. 2128]}. But what the scientific value of such a metaphor is remains a mystery.

Let's consider a variant of the medial presentation of the “Big Dead End”, which, as it seems to us, is a hypertext. This is the actual section of the Samizdat website. Dmitry Galkovsky's Virtual Server”, starting from the “Endless Dead End" page ^[22]. There are sections on this page that are tables of contents with links: “Rules for using hypertext”, “HYPERTEXT”, “Nominal index to hypertext", etc. In the course of proving that we have hypertext in the strict sense, we can take the easy way out and point to the author's genre nomination: the text on this web page is already called “hypertext”, although there is no such genre nomination in the four prefaces given in the fourth edition, respectively. In the PDF version, it is found only in the appendix, not even in the introduction, but in the first paragraph of the rosanological work “The Endless Dead End”: “This text contains references to the corresponding “notes” of the hypertext, but in the hypertext itself there are no back references to the “Main part”" ^{[20, p. 1922]}. This raises the question of research interpretation: how effective is this side reference to the genre in the appendix to the text on page 1922 in the context of an edition containing 2129 pages? At least, it is not a title or a subtitle, and it is not included in the above-mentioned text in the fourth edition.“Preface to the publication in the “Continent” magazine dated September 9, 1994 ^{[20, p. 1921]}. Isn't the use of the term “hypertext” an indication of the web version or part of the author's game? In any case, it is clear that the indication of the form and the author's consciousness of the chosen form is central only in the web version, where the genre nomination is placed in the accent position of the title, but not in the PDF document.

Another, more empirical proof that we have hypertext in front of us is the very image of the web text. “Entering” the hypertext, the reader clicks on the corresponding “button” link and finds himself on a web page occupied by one and only one note. Depending on the size of the note, the page changes the “length". The reader can click on the “forward” and “back" buttons. But they open as you move down the text, then the intra-text references to the notes are noticed immediately. At the same time, “jumping”, for example, from the 6th note to the 21st, the reader finds himself in a space where adjacent pages and, consequently, possible areas for clicking on the “forward” and “back” buttons are pages 20 and 22, but it is impossible to return to the 6th note. Thus, a certain trajectory of “navigation” is built: we set off along a certain route, actually creating one or another sequence of fragments, updating one or another interrelation of notes. The linear text that is created in our perception is highly dependent on our user actions: if we jumped from the 6th note to the 21st, and then moved to the 20th, returned to the 21st, went to the 22nd and began to read sequentially, then our reception inevitably includes, in addition to the content pages and this “turn”, we sort of go through the 21st note twice, we go back, not rereading. Using a book medium, we could simply put our finger on a specific page, or use a bookmark. In a PDF document, you can use a word search. In the web version of hypertext, you can search by word only on the page that is currently on the screen. In other words, the integrity of the text is ensured only by the link system and software. The linked text itself is possible on a computer screen in a browser window, on the Internet, written in htm or html markup. This is undoubtedly hypertext according to the above criteria. Moreover, we compensate for non-compliance with the strict criterion of hypertext according to O.V. Dedova by the criterion of verbalization of the author's intention. Yes, the web version of “Endless Dead End” is not an “information space” or a “communication model”, but it is an author's, personal “information space” possible only in the hypertext environment of the philosopher Odinokov's character, and this space implements a certain “communication model” that his thinking presupposes and software allows. In our opinion, it is the web version of the “Endless Dead End” that is the reference reference for the strict concept of hypertext, and vice versa: saying “this literary work is hypertext” one should compare its image and medial form with the web version of the “Endless Dead End” as a sample.

Conclusion

We have conducted a study of artistic hypertext in the context of the development of literary and general scientific understanding of hypertext. We have identified the definition of hypertext given by O.V. Dedova, which is most relevant for literary research, and which assumes three main parameters: electronic media as the only currently possible medium for hypertext presentation, software for the link system in it, and the reader's impact on hypertext when reading. However, contrary to O.V. Dedova, we tend to define as hypertext not only the medium and model of communication between different texts, but also as a separate text with links, representing something like a miniature of hypertext, and preserving all its criteria. We designate our move in the definition as a “cautious expansion.” If hypertext cannot be a single text, then no literary or artistic text, even a collective one consisting of links and possible only in electronic form, can be defined as hypertext, since hypertext is the text layer of the Internet itself or an Internet—like site like Wikipedia. On the contrary, if we take a careful expansion and take into account the importance of the author's genre and formal nomination in literary criticism, then a literary work can be defined as hypertext. If this is the case, then it is necessary to maintain the strictness of the definition, rather than expand it, and identify a reference representation of literary hypertext. In our opinion, it is the web version of the “Endless Dead End". In order to prove this, we compared three medial presentations of the work “Endless Dead End”, and found out that only the web version falls under the three criteria of hypertext, taking into account our extension.