Performative Modelling of Digital Writing

Fletcher, Jerome (2015) Performative Modelling of Digital Writing. In: Digital Literary Studies, May 14th/15th 2015, University of Coimbra, Portugal.

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Abstract / Summary

Starting from a critique of Jakobson's model of communication on the grounds of intentionality and decontextualisation, I show how a revised version of the model by Jean-Jacques Lecercle addresses these problems but is still largely a print-based literary model. For our purposes it doesn't take into account the digital apparatus - computer hardware and software – nor the performance required to access and ‘realise’ the digital text. I suggest a bi-planar model for digital literature which superposes a digital text model superimposed over the literary. But for this to work as a model the two planes need to connect. This connection I argue is provided by the concept of performativity. As a first run at testing this model, I examine how performativity integrates the natural language of the literary text with the artificial language of the digital apparatus. For this to happen first requires an exposition of integrational linguistics and speech act theory, both of which view language as profoundly performative. It is a short step from there to the performativity of code. However, although this may be a successful move, it may be that a more dynamic, less fixed, model of digital text is required; one that is itself digital.

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