The print artifact in the age of the digital : the writings of Mark Z. Danielewski and Steve Tomasula

Abstract

The primacy of the print novel as the main mode for knowledge dissemination and communication is being challenged today by the vast influx and pervasiveness of digital media. Print literature, then, is at potential risk for obsolescence, as digital technology creates new modes of narrative distribution. The novel, therefore, is in the midst of a metamorphosis, having to adapt in order to properly situate itself within the new media ecology. Somewhat paradoxically, the same digital technology that challenges print literature’s primacy is responsible for the novel’s adaption. The changing face of the page creates new novels that reflect the digital in print, through changes in typography, layout, and design. These changes illuminate the need for a material-specific methodology in literary theory, and brings about the death of postmodernism in the new, digital environment. iv