Form After the Internet Novel: The Hermeneutics of Digital Ekphrasis

The novel as a literary genre has been diagnosed as being under threat for a while, due to the rise of digital media. The term “internet novel,” applied to works such as Dave Eggers’ The Circle (2013), expresses trust in the novel as able to capture the encroachment of digital media on our lives, while playing out the analog against the digital world. The banalization of digital media (Dinnen) has made the notion of the internet novel redundant. In its stead, we find narratives that no longer mark the presence of digital technologies. Eleanor Catton’s Birnam Wood (2023) shares some concerns with Eggers’ novel, but a comparative reading shows a different perception of digital media as catalysts of human conflicts. To further investigate this banalization, the second part of the article focuses on Patricia Lockwood’s No One Is Talking About This (2021) and the hermeneutic potential of its ekphrases.