New forms of literariness in electronic literaturean approach to rhetorical enunciation and temporality

Resum

One of the major challenges in electronic literature is the search for literariness in the works. This topic is still largely debated among scholars due to the diverse representations that the literary can acquire and the unestablished methods for its analysis. This thesis explores how new forms of literariness are depicted in two works of electronic literature by developing a transdisciplinary research methodology featuring theories from Discourse Analysis, Literary Theory, and Electronic Literature. The main objective is to evaluate how the intersection between these fields benefits the paratextual, enunciative, rhetorical, and temporal analysis of digital works. Two contemporary works of electronic literature comprise the corpus: 88 Constellations for Wittgenstein (to be played with the Left Hand) (2008) by David Clark and Déprise (2010) by Serge Bouchardon and Vincent Volckaert. The analyses show that the materiality and performativity of literariness can be explored through the intermingling of three distinct approaches: (1) enunciative variations, (2) tropological potential of couplings between text, movement and manipulation, and (3) temporal reorganizations within the works’ complex narrative practices. The results of the analyses have enabled the creation of a transdisciplinary methodological contribution called “An Approach to Rhetorical enunciation and Temporality” (AReT), as well as the proposition of new hybrid terminology (e.g. interfacial anamnesis; interfacial randomization flashbacks; gestural impressionism). Both propositions can be used to study the emergence of new literary forms and the artistic exchanges between EL and different fine arts.