Derrida, Bible and hypertext ::

In her post "Jacques Derrida in digital environment?" Young Reader takes a post by Peter Lurie in "Why the Web Will Win the Culture Wars for the Left: Deconstructing Hyperlinks" and begins to explore ways in which when reading the bible online at Bible.org the hypertext format deconstructs the authority of the text - perhaps the opposite of what the website designers intend.

I wonder, I'd like her to explore the thought in more detail, does the linking text of hypertext dissolve the authority of the text, or does all the effort and the hundreds of links all focused on this passage of Scripture in very real ways reinforce that authority? It would certainly help raise the Google pagerank of that page on the web ;-)

(BTW I should declare an interest Young Reader is a Kenyan doing postgraduate work at the School of Theology at the University of Auckland, where I teach.)

¶ 7:54 AM [to Del.icio.us]

Look out for my next post Tim. I think the texts are dissolved or not disolved of authority depending on what "authority" means.

By  IJE, at September 10, 2006 5:05 PM  

Thanks for all this good stuff! I'm just reading and enjoying.

By  Suzanne McCarthy, at September 16, 2006 11:23 AM  

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