Emergent Poetics

This book proposes the term 'emergent poetics' to synthesize two divergent strands in contemporary literary media theory - the media archaeology of material inscriptions and the systems view of media ecology, which considers media as complex nodes of exchange. Emergent poetics emphasizes the speculative, non-prosthetic quality of media: the anthrodecentric perspective that media do not simply extend human senses, but instead consist of properties that exceed human apprehension. This study builds on Eve Kosofky Sedgwick’s theory of reparative reading, contemporary media theory, and Bruno Latour’s Actor-Network Theory, which are united in their skepticism regarding the paranoid “unveiling” gesture of institutional critique, their emphasis on methodology rather than theoretical ideology, and their insistence on assembling rather than deconstructing. In response to these three trends, this project begins by attending to what Jerome McGann calls the bibliographic code (material forms), while simultaneously expanding this medium specific perspective by situating written works within their broader media ecosystems, tracing interactions among media, humans, and nonhumans.