超文字小说

超文字小说（Hypertext fiction）是使用超文本链接的一种体裁。可非线性的提供新的资讯。如同维基百科，可从文本的一个节点移动到下一个节点。其精神也可以在看到。
该术语甚至还可用于描述以非线性叙述和交互式叙述的传统纸本书籍。例如詹姆斯·奥古斯汀·艾洛依休斯·乔伊斯的《尤利西斯》、豪尔赫·路易斯·博尔赫斯的《小径分岔的花园》、弗拉基米尔·弗拉基米罗维奇·纳博科夫的《微暗的火》、胡利奥·科塔萨尔的《跳房子》就是在「超文字小说」这个术语出现前的超文字小说例子。
定义.
超文本文学的定义几乎没有共识。类似的术语（cybertext，直译：网络文本）经常与超文本（hypertext）互换使用。
对而言，网络文本本身并不是一种体裁。 
历史.
第一批超文本小说是在万维网开发之前使用（直译：故事空间，是第一个专门为创建、编辑和阅读超文本小说而开发的软件程序。）和HyperCard（首批超媒体系统之一）等软件出版的。
该领域先驱者是和。
Douglas Cooper's "Delirium" (1994) was the first novel serialized on the World Wide Web; it permitted navigation between four parallel story strands. On June 21, 1996, Bobby Rabyd (aka Robert Arellano) published the World Wide Web's first interactive novel, "Sunshine 69", with navigable maps of settings, a nonlinear calendar of scenes, and a character "suitcase" enabling readers to try on nine different points of view. Shortly thereafter, in 1997, Mark Amerika released "GRAMMATRON", a multi-linear work that was eventually exhibited in art galleries. In 2000, it was included in the Whitney Biennial of American Art.
In the 1990s, women and feminist artists took advantage of hypertext and produced dozens of works. Linda Dement’s "Cyberflesh Girlmonster" a hypertext CD-ROM that incorporates images of women’s body parts and remixes them to create new shapes. Dr. Caitlin Fisher’s hypertext novella “‘These Waves of Girls“ is set in three time periods of the protagonist exploring polymorphous perversity enacted in her queer identity through memory. The story is written as a reflection diary of the interconnected memories of childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. It consists of an associated multi-modal collection of nodes includes linked text, still and moving images, manipulable images, animations, and sound clips. It won the Electronic Literature Organization award.
Some other web examples of hypertext fiction include Adrienne Eisen's "Six Sex Scenes" (1995),
Stuart Moulthrop's "Hegirascope" (1995, 1997), "The Unknown" (which won the trAce(Alt X award in 1998), "The Company Therapist" (1996-1999) (which won Net Magazine's "Entertainment Site of the Year"), and Caitlin Fisher's "These Waves of Girls" (2001) (which won the ELO award for fiction in 2001). More recent works include Stephen Marche's "Lucy Hardin's Missing Period" (2010) and Paul La Farge’s * "Luminous Airplanes" (2011).
The internationally oriented, but US based, Electronic Literature Organization (ELO) was founded in 1999 to promote the creation and enjoyment of electronic literature. Other organisations for the promotion of electronic literature include trAce Online Writing Community, a British organisation, started in 1995, that has fostered electronic literature in the UK, Dichtung Digital, a journal of criticism of electronic literature in English and German, and ELINOR, a network for electronic literature in the Nordic countries, which provides a directory of Nordic electronic literature. The Electronic Literature Directory lists many works of electronic literature in English and other languages.
特点.
超文本小说可包含图像、表格、引用等等。 
超文本小说可以采用不同的形式。可以是轴向的、树状的、网络的等等。轴向超文本小说有一个中心故事线，其中的链接会分支并返回到中心故事线。树状小说分支成相互排斥的故事情节。网络小说有多个起点，并不总是有固定的结局。一部超文本小说可以混合各种形式。
超文本小说的特点是构成虚构故事的文本网络节点。每个节点中通常有几个选项可以指导读者下一步可以去哪里。与传统小说不同，读者不受时空及角度限制，只取决于读者节点的选择。类似于维基百科，读者阅读一个节点，然后选择要遵循的链接。
批评.
2013年，《连线》发表了一篇关于为什么超文本小说没有流行起来的文章，声称非线性故事其实不易写，因为作品的每个部分都需要介绍人物或概念。