Digital Literatures circulation: testing post-Bourdieu theories

Abstract

The launching of Google Books and Google Earth in 2004 could be seen as a symbolic landmark in the configuration of memories and localization in space. Should we be getting ready for a change in literary reading and writing? It is time we asked whether interrelations on a global scale in digital environments have altered the patterns of production and distribution of writing, circulation and consumption of reading, and if so, in what way. We consider that Digital Literatures are a very useful workbench not only to explore the consequences of global digital circulation as a factual process, but also as an imaginary storytelling. Literatures that were born digital can show how rituals of readings, formulas of production and narratives are being modified in the twenty-first century. In this paper, we work on a very large and diverse domain: Digital Literatures circulating in Spanish all over the world, not only those created in Hispanophone countries. Our starting point is our own repertory: Ciberia, but also other digital collections such as LiteLab, IlovePoetry, Hermeneia, ELMCIP and ELO. We will try to answer the following question: Can we use a post-Bourdieu methodology, conceived for nineteenth century French literature, to study circulating Digital Literatures in Spanish as a changing field? We will provide a complete analysis of the emergence of this dynamic field.