Traditional printed texts and hypertexts are not fundamentally different. Actually they have more in common than is commonly assumed, and they thus can be analysed well within the parameters of established categories of literary theory. Against this background it seems striking that a number of theoretical treatises by early hypertext theorists such as Landow, Bolter, or Joyce refer to the revolutionary character of this kind of writing, the amazing technological development that lies behind it, and the almost miraculous convergence of postmodern literary concepts and hypertext. These...