Literature and the Public Sphere in the Internet Age Daniel James South PhD University of York English March 2019 Abstract This thesis explores the relationship between literature and the public sphere in the internet age. The introduction identifies gaps on these three topics in current academic work, and outlines the need for clarification of the links between them. The chapters go on to explicate these links with reference to the work of four contemporary authors, namely Jonathan Franzen, Dave Eggers, Zadie Smith, and David Foster Wallace. In their writing, these authors all identify different challenges to the public sphere in the internet age and, in response, ‘model’ alternative modes of being in the public sphere. These modes of being emerge from the particular formal affordances of literature, and are described here as forms of ‘literary publicness.’ The thesis situates these authors on a spectrum of discursive agency, ranging from a view of the public sphere in which writers are seen as authoritative, to a view in which reading processes are prioritised. Each chapter also addresses how these authors have themselves been considered as figures in the public sphere. As such, the story that this thesis tells both helps to clarify the role that culture plays in the public sphere, and reveals the concept of the public sphere itself as a key locus of the relationship between contemporary literature and the internet. 2 List of Contents Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 2 List of Contents .......................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................... 5 Declaration .................................................................................................................. 6 Introduction: Literature and the Public Sphere in the Internet Age .................... 7 Search Terms ............................................................................................................ 7 Public Inquiry ......................................................................................................... 18 Literary Iterations ................................................................................................... 30 Prose and Comms ................................................................................................... 38 Jonathan Franzen: Authority and Authorship ..................................................... 45 No Filter .................................................................................................................. 45 Author IT ................................................................................................................ 56 What the Dickens? .................................................................................................. 66 Strongman Motion .................................................................................................. 79 Dave Eggers: Platforms and Privacy...................................................................... 87 Totally Wired .......................................................................................................... 87 Silicon Values ......................................................................................................... 93 Democracy 2.0 ...................................................................................................... 101 Can We Speak Privately? ..................................................................................... 107 One Wise Man ...................................................................................................... 116 3 Zadie Smith: Depiction and Difference ................................................................ 126 Comment Threads ................................................................................................ 126 Reduction Costs .................................................................................................... 135 All Modern Cons .................................................................................................. 142 Constructionist Sites ............................................................................................. 151 Writers’ Rights ..................................................................................................... 160 David Foster Wallace: Reading and Refusal ....................................................... 168 Prescience or Precedents? ..................................................................................... 168 Homo Techonomicus ............................................................................................ 177 Re: Reading .......................................................................................................... 183 “This is just my opinion” ...................................................................................... 191 On Reading DFW ................................................................................................. 200 Conclusion: Modelling Citizens ............................................................................ 206 Bibliography ........................................................................................................... 212 4 Acknowledgements I have been sincerely grateful during the completion of this thesis for the loving support of my family, and the patience of my friends. I would also like to extend my thanks to Dr. Richard Walsh, and those attendees of IBAAS 2016, ACLA 2017, BACLS 2018, and other conferences, who provided feedback on my work. Mostly, however, I am grateful for the guidance of my supervisor, Dr. Adam Kelly, whose breadth of knowledge and soundness of advice have been rivalled only by his generosity and kindness. This work was supported by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (grant number AH/L503848/1) through the White Rose College of the Arts & Humanities. 5 Declaration I declare that this thesis is a presentation of original work and I am the sole author. This work has not previously been presented for an award at this, or any other, University. All sources are acknowledged as References. 6 Introduction: Literature and the Public Sphere in the Internet Age Search Terms In its December 11th, 2017 issue, The New Yorker magazine published a list of its most-read articles of the year. Calculated by collating the amount of time readers spent on each article on the magazine’s website, the top of the list comprised a mixture of pieces about the two hottest topics covered by the publication that year – the serial sexual abuse committed by Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, and U.S. president Donald Trump’s tempestuous first year in office. Given the contexts of 2016’s fractious presidential election, and the rapid rise to prominence of the #MeToo movement, the fact that the magazine’s most-read articles of 2017 were pieces of journalism concerning topics of national conversation was unsurprising. But these contexts also ensured that the very idea of national conversation was itself a topic of public debate: the controversies surrounding the spread of fake news associated with the 2016 election, and the explosion of activism on social media that comprised #MeToo, drew attention to the ways in which public discussions of political issues occur in the internet age. Amidst this widespread consideration of the roles of journalism and digital technologies in public life, however, The New Yorker found itself at the centre of a cultural event that raised questions about where literature sat in this emerging narrative of public discourse in the internet age. A week after the initial publication of its most-read list, the magazine posted an amended version of the rankings on its website, with Kristen Roupenian’s “Cat Person,” a short story printed in the same issue as the original article rankings before being published online, now listed as The New Yorker’s second most-read article of 7 the year.1 Roupenian’s story, about a series of increasingly unpleasant encounters between a young woman and a man she is dating, was perfectly pitched for the discursive atmosphere of 2017’s close, and rapidly went viral. Although it never mentions the movement itself, Roupenian’s story immediately contributed to the broader cultural debates about gender and power that were being foregrounded by #MeToo – as Tony Williams neatly summarises, “the story sparked passionate debate among readers, elevating it beyond the ghetto of short fiction to global conversations about gender, sex, violence and power.”2 The story recounts the nascent relationship between Margot, a student, and Robert, an older man who she gets to know mainly via text messaging. When Robert drives Margot to a cinema on their first date, she suddenly realises how much trust she has placed in him – “as they got on the highway, it occurred to her that he could take her someplace and rape and murder her; she hardly knew anything about him, after all.”3 Margot is more ready to distrust her own instincts than to distrust Robert, however, and quickly considers whether the “discomfort” between them in the car “was her fault,” precisely “because she was acting jumpy and nervous, like the kind of girl who thought she was going to get murdered every time she went on a date.”4 Many female readers have highlighted