Transnational Blogospheres: Virtual Politics, Death, and Lurking in France and the U.S

Transnational Blogospheres: Virtual Politics, Death, and Lurking in France and the U.S. by Scott Matthew Kushner Department of Romance Studies Duke University Date: 10 April 2009 Approved: ___________________________ Linda Orr, Supervisor ___________________________ David F. Bell ___________________________ N. Katherine Hayles ___________________________ Kenneth S. Rogerson Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Romance Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2009 ABSTRACT Transnational Blogospheres: Virtual Politics, Death, and Lurking in France and the U.S. by Scott Matthew Kushner Department of Romance Studies Duke University Date: 10 April 2009 Approved: ___________________________ Linda Orr, Supervisor ___________________________ David F. Bell ___________________________ N. Katherine Hayles ___________________________ Kenneth S. Rogerson An abstract of a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Romance Studies in the Graduate School of Duke University 2009 Copyright by Scott Matthew Kushner 2009 Abstract What are the meanings of “here” and “there” in a digital age? This dissertation explores how blogs reveal new meanings of being “here” in a political space, how blogs reveal new meanings of being (or not being) “here” in a textually-mediated universe, and how blogs reveal new ways of being seen to be “here” when most internet users are just looking and log on and off without saying a word. Beginning with a reflection on the possibilities of democracy in a world where the interface is drawn to the forefront, I argue that the internet presents a new (and imperfect) way for citizens to operate the machinery of government. Next, I consider the consequences of this interface being available to people regardless of their geographic locations or national origins. I argue that citizenship in a digital moment is more closely bound to participation than it is to blood or territory and construct a notion of virtual transnational citizenship. Such a notion of transnational citizenship does not signal the end of place and the irrelevance of presence and absence. Instead, it reveals that these concepts must be rethought and refigured. Bloggers flicker between absence and presence: in the blogosphere, every post may be a blogger’s last, but there may just be another one waiting for us if we’ll click reload. With this ambiguity in mind, I outline a digital ethics of reading that is attentive to both of these possibilities. Finally, I turn to the vast majority of blog users: the “lurkers” who read silently but do not write. I untangle reading, writing, and inscription in order to produce an understanding of how reading iv works in the blogosphere and argue that the lurker is not so much the reader who does not write as the reader who has not yet written. By tracing the meanings of “here” and “there” through the blogosphere, this dissertation contributes to our understanding of what it means to be--politically and metaphysically--in the age of the internet. v Contents Abstract..........................................................................................................................iv List of Figures ...............................................................................................................vii Acknowledgments....................................................................................................... viii Introduction.....................................................................................................................1 I. Interfacial Democracy: Laurent Guerby and the Pursuit of Political Transparency......15 II. Stories about Citizens and Borders in a Digital Universe...........................................44 III. Virtually Dead: Assassinations, Suicides, and the Meanings of Blogospheric Absence ......................................................................................................................................80 IV. The Lurkers: Unseen Footprints in the Blogosphere...............................................121 Conclusion ..................................................................................................................158 Works Cited ................................................................................................................165 Biography....................................................................................................................183 vi List of Figures Figure 1: Screenshot of Google Reader web page displaying “Palin on the Wasilla Church Arson,” an aggregated blog entry. Note the singles ad inserted beneath the post (“Google Reader”)........................................................................................156 Figure 2: Screenshot of “Palin on the Wasilla Church Arson” blog entry in its original form at the Little Green Footballs website. Note the site logo at top; columnar layout; links to “Top 10,” “Bottom,” and “Recent Comments” and other site features on the left; advertisements to the right (no singles ads to be seen); the “US NEWS” tag just under the headline; and embedded video content at the bottom of the post. Beneath the video (not visible in this screenshot) are nearly 400 comments (maddogg). ..........................................................................................................157 vii Acknowledgments Like any large project, this one could not have been completed without the support of a host of friends, teachers, and colleagues. I am thankful to all those who have lent me their ears, their ideas, and their time in the past several years. Linda Orr is academia’s most adventurous Ph.D. advisor. When I approached her about directing this project, she did not hesitate for a moment to accept, even though it meant learning a new field and mastering new discourses. She has done this with great aplomb, and all while trying to retire. She has let me wander and soar, get lost and fall, but never fail. When I have spoken and written in rough ideas, she has found diamonds and helped me polish them. And she has thankfully held me to unfailingly high standards of argumentation and graceful writing. There is no one else that I can imagine having trusted with shepherding me through this process. I can only hope that I have been able to teach her a tenth as much about the digital humanities as she has taught me about being a great scholar, student, teacher, and mentor. The other members of my dissertation committee, David Bell, Ken Rogerson, and Kate Hayles, have each contributed critiques, ideas, and encouragement along the way. Their thoughtful questions and challenges have given shape to the arguments and fed the curiosities that drove this project. Readers who are familiar with their work will see traces of their interests in my bibliography and a pale imitation of their intellect in my writing. viii Mark Poster of the University of California, Irvine, participated in the prospectus exam and offered valuable comments on this project in its early moments. Many of the ideas that I develop here were enriched by conversations with Meredith McGill and the members of the “New Media Literacies: Gutenberg to Google” seminar at the Center for Cultural Analysis at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. The graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty members, and visitors who participated in this group have helped me establish a foothold in the digital humanities. Portions of chapters 1 and 2 were generously critiqued by Cindi Katz of the City University of New York and the members of the “Historical Geographies of the Neoliberal Present, 1973-2008” workshop at the University College Dublin Clinton Institute for American Studies Summer School in July 2008. Some of this work was also presented at the 2007 MLA Convention in Chicago. Thanks are due to Sandra Zagarell of Oberlin College for chairing the Networks panel, to Priscilla Wald of Duke for serving as a thoughtful respondent, and to members of the audience for the lively and provocative conversation that followed the papers. An early version of chapter 3 was presented at the Other Spaces conference, organized by Kadji Amin, Zach Erwin, and Anne O’Neil-Henry on behalf of the graduate students of the Department of Romance Studies at Duke. My interest in theories of everyday life--and in critical theory in general--was sparked at the 2005 Dartmouth Summer Institute in French Cultural Studies. The other graduate student and faculty participants contributed to a fascinating three weeks of ix seminars and discussions. The institute’s director, Larry Kritzman of Dartmouth College, has been a mentor and a friend ever since. Tom Conley offered helpful bibliographic direction on the history of cartography while my colleague Micah True introduced me to scholarship on travel writing. Anne O’Neil-Henry read and offered insightful comments on some of this work, as did members of the 2006-07 Dissertation Working Group at Duke’s Franklin Humanities Institute. While I was working, I often bragged that my archive was virtual and I could conduct research anywhere. But, truth be told, I read and wrote nearly every page in a library. Posthuman, postdigital, postpaper--pshaw! I still feel most at home in the stacks. I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude and utmost respect to the hardworking librarians and staff members of Duke University’s Perkins

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