Digital literatures; digital democracies; digital threats?

Abstract

Technology is reconfiguring the ways in which we consume, produce and disseminate literature, both within literary studies and outside of the academy. However, most importantly, the apparent breakdown of the gatekeeper function that has been triggered by technology in the distribution of both fiction and criticism leads to a form that looks, at least to some perhaps neo-liberal degree, as though it might be more democratic. In this paper, I explore the ways in which these new technologies unearth value structures within our discipline that have been present for a long time, despite the corrective efforts of cultural studies, but are now more overtly surfacing in a swing back toward Leavisite modes. How are we to strike a balance and sensitivity in our practice of reading and teaching towards a liberal model of value and a top-down authoritarian approach? How might technology enable or hinder such a balancing act