Authoring for English Literature in Hypercard: Where in the World is Blake's Tyger?

Many universities are applying computers to English literature, but find it difficult to integrate the machine into actual teaching. The difficulties of using hypertext in critical reading arc outlined in the article, and several examples of its use appraised, including Brown University's Intermedia. There are several dangers in the 'open field? approach, however, which the article outlines. The possibilities of hypertext for representing the foregrounded features of a literary text are then described, as well as its capacity to mimic or at least draw attention to the reading process itself. The author outlines in detail his own attempts to program in HyperCard: first, two Katherine Mansfield short stories; second, Blake's poem 'The Tyger?. He concludes that teacher-programmers in the Humanities should focus on solving the pedagogical issues involved in using hypertext by exploring its graphic resources to produce programs which can be genuinely useful adjuncts to classroom teaching.