Lexia (hypertext)

In Hypertext, a lexia (, ‘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". These are not necessarily present in the text before it is read, and can be "arbitrary, but useful" in analysis.

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."

Scholars have noted that Landow actually uses the term lexia quite differently from Barthes.