After describing the English course and the particular hypertext system that supports it at Brown University, the essay surveys the materials on Context32, that part of the system devoted to literature courses, and narrates how a student uses the system during a typical session in our electronic laboratory/classroom. Next, it presents evidence of the effects of such information technology on student performance, after which it examines the relation of hypertext to contemporary literary theory, in particular to the ideas of decentering, intertextuality, and anti-hierarchical texts. Finally, it explains the continuing developments of Intermedia.