Project Presentation

This cartography explores theoretical constellations embodied in different types of migration (corporations, corpora, corpus and corporalities) in the field of Latin American digital literature. We adopt a broad definition of migration as the displacement of physical, identity, political and social orders, and aim to develop this cartography as a result of our project funded by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and under the tuition of Prof. Dr. Anita Traninger.

One of the most important manifestations of digital writing is what is known as “digital literature”. This is not digitized literature, thus it does not consist of applying the characteristics of printed, linear (at one point, ascetic) texts to a PDF file or modifying it to adapt it to an e-book reading device. On the contrary, it is a series of languages from different artistic and disciplinary practices that combine to give rise to a digitally born literary product.

The term “digital” does not intend to refer only to a change in medium (from print to digital) but rather to a modulation and redefinition of practices and, above all, of the status of literature. Thus, digital literature challenges the modern conception of literature, which is based on a series of preconceptions that are themselves in crisis: the figure of the author, the obligatory existence of a printed book as the hegemonic vehicle of literature, the idea that there is an original of which the author is the only owner, the preservation of a literate culture associated with the practice of writing, and the specificity of the verbal. This type of literature focuses on the materiality of the letter and makes explicit its link with the medium in which it is housed and, consequently, with the aesthetic-political event that takes place there. This implies not only the expansion of the status of the literary, but also a reflection on language in our everyday practices. 

In addition to thinking about artistic practice, a political question is raised: which is the location of literature when it abandons it national belonging? In previous research (Gómez, 2024) we have work on the idea of an interzone to host digital literature. In this cartography, we bring a new question related with the political location of literature that allows us to gather the constellations: how is the corpus of Latin American digital literature conceptually constructed in light of the dependence on resources from the global North and the migration of artists from the global South?

In the context of Latin American digital literature, corporeal migrations entail the intersection of various exchanges involving the individual bodies of artists from the global South, as well as institutions and corporations from the global North that provide financing and resources (including accessibility to software and hardware, media labs, scholarships, residencies, and bibliographic material, among others). These exchanges facilitate the creation of insubordinate works (corpora) that allows to develop a migrant corpus in terms of support and languages, showing the non-neutrality of technology. 

Types of Constellations

References

Gómez, Verónica Paula. Domicilios de la literatura digital. De la idea de Nación a la de interzona, México, Centro de Cultura Digital, 2024. https://centroculturadigital.mx/descargable/domicilios-de-la-literatura-digital 

Project Responsible Contact 
Dr. Verónica Paula Gómez
AvH Foundation Fellow (2024-2026)
Habelschwerdter Allee 45, RAUM: KL 26/124
D-14195 Berlin
Institut für Romanische Philologie
Freie Universität Berlin
Homepage