NARRATIVES BEYOND SCREEN: POST-INTERNET LITERATURE AND THE UNCHANGING ESSENCE OF LITERARY EXPERIENCE

Abstract

This article attempts a comparative study of two emotionally intense literary works: Sylvia Plath’s Ariel (1965, a seminal work of confessional poetry) and Natasha Trethewey’s Native Guard (2006, a digitally disseminated historical and elegiac poetry collection) to show that despite the vivid format of publication, the fundamental literary essence is unchanged. Looking through the lens of history, literature has journeyed from oral traditions to written scriptures, from printed texts to digital platforms. The central aim is to examine whether these fundamental elements of literature and its literary experiences are being preserved across different mode of publication. Literature is used to connect the self and the other, the author and the reader, in ways that go beyond its publication method.

The article employs critical frameworks from reader response theory, media theory and narratology to do a comparative analysis of both literary works examining narrative and thematic style, experimental dimensions of each text and analysing the reader engagement in different platforms. The rise of digital literature has sparked numerous debates about whether screen-based reading will alter the literary experience.

The results reveal that while medium may influence the accessibility and interactivity of a literary work, the reader engagement and the essence of literary expression that engulfs the power to articulate emotional truth, to evoke critical introspection, to express and reflect reality vividly with the use of language and literary devices remain constant regardless whether a literary work is being read on a printed text or on a touch screen interface.

References

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