Affect, emotion and sensation in new media writing : the work of John Cayley, M.D. Coverley and Jason Nelson

Hazel Smith

    Research output: Chapter in Book / Conference PaperChapter

    Abstract

    This essay will discuss the importance of sensation to new media writing by exploring the continuum between affect and emotion in such work. I will argue that the particular characteristics of new media writing produce distinctive affective environments. This is because new media environments produce technical opportunities that change the affective possibilities available on the page. These opportunities include interactivity, 3-dimensional spatial arrangement, kinetic ism, manipulation of the reading speed, textual variability and the capacity to merge image, text and sound. I will argue that, in general, new media writing environments veer more towards affect or affective intensities (defined as a flux of sensations) and less towards emotion (categorizable, codifiable and cognitive states of feeling such as happiness and anger). I will suggest that in new media writing an emphasis on affect requires the reader to submit to, or activate, a flow of sensations which are partly pre-cognitive. The emotional response elicited by a realist novel, in contrast, requires emotional identification with characters on the part of the reader and involvement in the plot. Such emotional identifications are still possible within the new media environment, but are less central to its forms and processes.
    Original languageEnglish
    Title of host publicationLiterature and Sensation
    EditorsAnthony Uhlmann, Helen Groth, Paul Sheehan, Stephen McLaren
    Place of PublicationU.K.
    PublisherCambridge Scholars
    Pages300-312
    Number of pages13
    ISBN (Print)9781443801164
    Publication statusPublished - 2009

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