From Digitised to Digital Literature: An Introduction to the Poetics of Digital Literature, with Reflections on Reading and Teaching It

Ghaffary, Mohammad

doi:10.22124/naqd.2025.30761.2704

From Digitised to Digital Literature: An Introduction to the Poetics of Digital Literature, with Reflections on Reading and Teaching It

Document Type : Review

Author

Mohammad Ghaffary

Associate Professor in English Language and Literature, Arak University, Arak, Iran.

10.22124/naqd.2025.30761.2704

Abstract

The emergence and rapid development of digital technologies and virtual spaces in recent decades have brought about fundamental transformations in value systems, lifestyles, social relations, and the representation of the human condition in literary and artistic works. In the field of literature, not only have the processes of production and reception become increasingly digitalised, but traditional printed literature is also gradually giving way to digitised and digital/electronic forms of literary expression. Nevertheless, digital literature has yet to be fully established in Persian-speaking communities as its nature and mechanisms have remained largely absent in discussions of contemporary Persian literature. By offering a precise conceptual analysis and a case study, this study aims to attract the attention of scholars of contemporary literature to the subject. The central argument of this article is that, due to its multimodal and multimedia nature, its interactive and hypertextual characteristics, and its unique conditions of production and publication, digital literature significantly transcends the boundaries of the traditional discourse of printed literature. Therefore, one of the most appropriate approaches to reading and critiquing digital literature is “multimodal discourse analysis,” which allows for a simultaneous and interconnected examination of its various modes. The article concludes with a general framework for rethinking the teaching of literature in the digital age, drawing on Richard’s and Rodgers’s model for teaching verbal language as well as the concept of gamification.

Extended Abstract
1. Introduction
The emergence and rapid development of digital technologies and virtual spaces in recent decades have brought about fundamental transformations in value systems, lifestyles, social relations, and the representation of the human condition in literary and artistic works. In the field of literature, not only have the processes of production and reception become increasingly digitalised, but traditional printed literature is also gradually giving way to digitised and digital/electronic forms of literary expression. Nevertheless, digital literature has yet to be fully established in Persian-speaking communities as its nature and mechanisms have remained largely absent in discussions of contemporary Persian literature. By offering a precise conceptual analysis and a case study, this study aims to attract the attention of scholars of contemporary literature to the subject.

2. Methodology
Informed by conceptual analysis and analytic philosophy, this qualitative-analytical study explores the data collected from the opinions and statements of researchers in the fields of communication and information technology, literary theory and philosophy, and theories of language and literature teaching.

3. Theoretical Framework
Informed by functional linguistics, conversation analysis, discourse analysis, critical discourse analysis, and social semiotics, Multimodal Discourse Analysis tries to realise how multiple forms of communication, like text, images, sounds, and spatial arrangements, work together to convey meaning. This approach goes beyond traditional linguistic analysis by considering various semiotic resources. Although MDA has been applied to printed works, it has never been systematically applied to digitized literature.

4. Discussion and Analysis
The term “digital literature” or “electronic literature” consists of two parts: the word “literature” plus the adjective “digital/electronic.” Therefore, logically, both elements must be considered in the analysis, because being merely literary, although necessary, is not sufficient, and digital literature also requires the sufficient condition of digitalisation. Of note here is that a “digital” literary work should not be confused with a “digitised” literary work: the former refers to a literary work that was created primarily in cyberspace, while the latter refers to a literary work (poem, prose, or play) that was originally published in print but was then scanned and converted into an electronic file using computers and digital technology.
The developments in the literary world have brought new requirements for reading and critiquing this new form of digital literature. That said, many of the factors enumerated in the production of printed literature may not play any role in the production of digital literature. On the other hand, in the production and consumption of digital literature, especially in its interactive form, the role of the “reader” becomes much more prominent and direct because in these works, like video games, the reader participates in completing the structure and the narrative discourse by selecting the elements and possibilities of the text and actualising its potential dimensions.
Teaching digital literature also requires completely different and more complex theoretical and practical frameworks. In Iran, university literature courses do not pay much attention to digital literature. For this reason, it is necessary to pay attention to digital literature, its production in Iranian literary ambience, its teaching in universities and creative writing courses, and its criticism in prestigious, official, and academic journals.

5. Conclusion
Digital literature is computer-centric, cyberspace-based, multifaceted, hypertextual, interactive, ergodic, and collective in nature, and the conditions of its production, distribution, and consumption as a cultural commodity are completely different from the conditions of production, distribution, and consumption of printed literature. The central argument of this article is that, due to its multimodal and multimedia nature, its interactive and hypertextual characteristics, and its unique conditions of production and publication, digital literature significantly transcends the boundaries of the traditional discourse of printed literature. Therefore, one of the most appropriate approaches to reading and critiquing digital literature is “multimodal discourse analysis,” which allows for a simultaneous and interconnected examination of its various modes. The present study proposes the following as topics for further studies: Multimodal Discourse Analysis of digital literature, attention to the production and reception of contemporary digital Persian literature, incorporation of technology and digitalization in teaching literature on intermedial and multimedial platforms, and digital literature as a university syllabus.

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Keywords

Main Subjects

philosophy and literary theory

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