Anticipation and Divination of Technological Culture: Dialectic Images of the Internet in Emerson’s Nature

Abstract

The article presents certain aspects of the Internet (interface design, user behavior, advertising, codes of conduct) as new incarnations of the American pastoralism, defined in terms derived from literary criticism and history of American literature. The rationale of this procedure is provided in terms of “dialectic images,” which are old pieces of imagery that seem to anticipate subsequent technological and social developments. Of particular importance is the set of dialectical images derived from Ralph Waldo Emerson’s writings, and the pastoral descriptions of nature derived from various American poets and fiction writers. Arguably, dialectic images of the Internet offer an opportunity for a better understanding of contemporary development of the Internet, and its possible future.