How do we read in the hypertextual infinity?

Abstract

This paper seeks to address a central question: what individual paths does the reader follow in textual expansion, and what motivations drive the hyper-reader toward hyper-reading? Furthermore, are the motivations for reading comparable to those underlying hyper-reading? Offering exhaustive answers would be presumptuous, first because these are semantic and constantly evolving issues, and second because there is no conceptual or factual precedent for digital hypertext. One might argue that reading has always been augmented by nature, in the poststructuralist sense of the unlimited semiosis of the open work, yet the definitional difficulty remains and prevails, since the open work has never been as open as it is today. The study focuses on augmented reading practices — that is, on the processes of enriching text reading through online in-depth informational content. Several focus groups enabled the collection of qualitative data, here selected, reread, and analyzed according to the five factors identified by Beatrice Eleuteri as constituting the motivations for reading. Following Eleuteri’s methodological approach, this paper attempts an initial identification of the motivations underlying augmented reading.