Liberature or Literature in the Electric Age

The article proposes a media-oriented approach to liberature, a literary trend born in Poland at the end of the 20th century which aims at reconsidering the physical body of the book as an integral part of the literary work. The idea of liberature is not only a contemporary literary programme, b...

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Main Author: Emiliano Ranocchi
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Vilnius Academy of Arts Press 2021-02-01
Series:Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis
Subjects:
Online Access:https://aaav.vda.lt/journal/article/view/72
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author Emiliano Ranocchi
author_facet Emiliano Ranocchi
author_sort Emiliano Ranocchi
collection DOAJ
description The article proposes a media-oriented approach to liberature, a literary trend born in Poland at the end of the 20th century which aims at reconsidering the physical body of the book as an integral part of the literary work. The idea of liberature is not only a contemporary literary programme, but it has also helped in redefining phenomena from the past hitherto considered to be marginal. The thesis of the article is that this corporeal turn is directly connected with what Marshall McLuhan has called the electric age – a time in which electrical media have put an end to print culture and consequently to the predominance of sight over other senses, to standardisation, specialisation, and linear thinking in favour of a new audio-tactile sensibility. Liberature, if considered from this point of view, turns out to be not a form of resistance of old print culture in a digital world, but the natural consequence of a change of paradigm we can trace also in other fields such as physics and linguistics where the concept of embodiment has occupied a central position for several decades. Hence, far from being a curiosity at the periphery of contemporary literature, it ought to be considered as an important expression of present times.
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issn 1392-0316
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language English
publishDate 2021-02-01
publisher Vilnius Academy of Arts Press
record_format Article
series Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis
spelling doaj-art-49a9d92af83c41f3a88c16f8b902bd272025-08-20T03:06:47ZengVilnius Academy of Arts PressActa Academiae Artium Vilnensis1392-03162783-68432021-02-01101-10210.37522/aaav.101.2021.72Liberature or Literature in the Electric AgeEmiliano Ranocchi0University of Udine, Italy The article proposes a media-oriented approach to liberature, a literary trend born in Poland at the end of the 20th century which aims at reconsidering the physical body of the book as an integral part of the literary work. The idea of liberature is not only a contemporary literary programme, but it has also helped in redefining phenomena from the past hitherto considered to be marginal. The thesis of the article is that this corporeal turn is directly connected with what Marshall McLuhan has called the electric age – a time in which electrical media have put an end to print culture and consequently to the predominance of sight over other senses, to standardisation, specialisation, and linear thinking in favour of a new audio-tactile sensibility. Liberature, if considered from this point of view, turns out to be not a form of resistance of old print culture in a digital world, but the natural consequence of a change of paradigm we can trace also in other fields such as physics and linguistics where the concept of embodiment has occupied a central position for several decades. Hence, far from being a curiosity at the periphery of contemporary literature, it ought to be considered as an important expression of present times. https://aaav.vda.lt/journal/article/view/72LiberatureElectric AgeMedia EcologyPolish Contemporary LiteratureBookishness
spellingShingle Emiliano Ranocchi
Liberature or Literature in the Electric Age
Acta Academiae Artium Vilnensis
Liberature
Electric Age
Media Ecology
Polish Contemporary Literature
Bookishness
title Liberature or Literature in the Electric Age
title_full Liberature or Literature in the Electric Age
title_fullStr Liberature or Literature in the Electric Age
title_full_unstemmed Liberature or Literature in the Electric Age
title_short Liberature or Literature in the Electric Age
title_sort liberature or literature in the electric age
topic Liberature
Electric Age
Media Ecology
Polish Contemporary Literature
Bookishness
url https://aaav.vda.lt/journal/article/view/72
work_keys_str_mv AT emilianoranocchi liberatureorliteratureintheelectricage