Digital Literature: Theoretical and Aesthetic Reflections

The emergence of a new phenomenon – digital literature – within the field of literary studies calls for the reorganization and creation of new theoretical and analytical repertoires. As models of communication change, so do reception and production processes accompanying these changes. Within these altered scenarios, the dissertation Digital Literature: Theoretical and Aesthetic Reflections is a response to the aesthetic and theoretical challenges brought on by computer-based literature. As a methodological strategy, the dissertation articulates recent trends in the theory of digital aesthetics – remediation (BOLTER), eventilization (HAYLES), correlations of performativity, intermediality and interactivity with meaning-driven analysis (SIMANOWSKI), Medienumbrüche (GENDOLLA & SCHÄFER) – with theories of production of presence (GUMBRECHT), autopoietic communicative models (LUHMANN) and closereadings of digital works. By scripting a dialogue with key theorists from print literary theory as well as new media theorists and artists in the burgeoning field, the thesis offers conceptual and theoretical contributions to the formulation of a poetics of new media.