Literature and Participatory Culture Online: Literary Crowdsourcing and Its Discontents

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article discusses literary crowdsourcing in the context of critical media studies and aesthetic theories that stress participation. First, it draws an overall picture of the participatory culture or social turn in literature, focusing on literary crowdsourcing and the social values and hopes attached to it. Second, the article discusses the challenges literary crowdsourcing faces, arguing that today's cultural, economic and media environments render the practice vulnerable to different social, economic and aesthetic discontents. Asking to what extent literary crowdsourcing is able to uphold its promises of social value in the literary and media environment characterised by platform capitalism, precarious labour, communicative capitalism and affective economics, the article offers critical tools for analysing literary crowdsourcing and participatory online practices in art.