Lexia (hypertext)
In Hypertext, a lexia (Greek: λέξις, ‘diction, word’) is a text unit that links to other lexia, corresponding to a node in a network. This use of the term was introduced by George Landow, and was based on Roland Barthes' use of lexia in S/Z to refer "units of reading". The term is used in scholarship on hypertext, although node is often used synonymously.
Barthes defines lexia as a "series of brief, contiguous fragments, which we shall call call lexia, since they are units of reading".[1] These are not necessarily present in the text before it is read, and can be "arbitrary, but useful" in analysis.[1]
In hypertext, on the other hand, lexia are units of text that are separated from other lexia. The reader must usually click a link to move from one lexia to the next.
George Landow, writing in 1992, was one of the first scholars to analyse literary hypertexts. The term lexia was a key term for him in developing his theoretical and analytical approach to the new genre of hypertext fiction. Landow defined hypertext thus: "Hypertext, as the term will be used in the following pages, denotes text composed of blocks of text — what Barthes terms a lexia — and the electronic links that join them."[2]
Scholars have noted that Landow's actually uses the term lexia quite differently from Barthes.[3]