Rethinking text : writing in the digital age

Meinecke, Alexandria and Ashworth, Jenn and Gere, Charlie (2024) Rethinking text : writing in the digital age. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.

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Abstract

This thesis aims to examine the interplay of multiple types of media in the construction of a heteronymic nonfiction collection. Specifically, the examination of this interplay is considered through the lens of multimodality and what it means to engage in a multimodal text through the use of digital media, photography, and bound media—as defined as media traditionally used to contain and distribute text-based information, such as books, e-books, zines, brochures, etc. The result of this investigation is the chapbook titled Call Me Sinner and the social media account @ccmoon.writes, which ended on March 3, 2022. The chapbook, Call Me Sinner, expands on experiments such as Jonathon Safron Foer’s Tree of Codes (2010), Mark Amerika’s remixthebook (2001), and Fiona Banner’s Caption Scroll (2019). In addition, this thesis aims to exploit and expose forms earmarked by authenticity (i.e., the confessional, social media) to challenge the presentation and construction of creative nonfiction. In support of these aims, research focuses on the choice in media; the influence of materials and materiality; and the creative potential of digital media in writing. Investigations will go beyond early experiments concerned with the impact of images paired with text (i.e., William Blake’s Europe: a Prophecy (1794), Alessandro Manzoni’s I promessi sposi (1825-27)) or previous experiments on the inability of writing to capture experiences (i.e., David Small’s Stitches (2009)). Furthermore, this project is not concerned with what mediums within digital media can do, which was the focus of early digital experiments (i.e., Shelley Jackson’s hypertext experiment Patchwork Girl (1995)). It is instead examining how writers now use digital media. This is explored through @ccmoon.writes on Instagram, which illustrates text as a living object through its past-present time structure and how social media has re-popularized text as image (i.e., rupi kaur, r.h. sin, Atticus).