On the Cusp of the Post-Internet Essay: Lisa Robertson’s Nilling (2012)

Abstract

In the wake of mass digital transformations, this article turns to the question of a corresponding aesthetic transformation in literary works. Although previous studies have focussed on novels and poetry, this article turns its attention towards the essay genre by taking Lisa Robertson’s collection Nilling (2012) as its primary case-study. It contextualises Nilling within Robertson’s career to reveal her evolving towards the incorporation and depiction of technology in her writing, and reveals how the digital interrupts the collection as a flickering image or a glitching presence that is simultaneously (temporally) barely there while also being visibly hyper-present. Even though Robertson is known for her sustained interest in books and their materiality, this article argues that Nilling captures the imprint of a mind that is at once technologically influenced but conflicted by its loyalty to the codex. It argues that Robertson’s writing evinces a Post-Internet aesthetic that has emerged in response to internet technologies, discusses what this might mean for the contemporary essay, and guides readers towards other instances in which contemporary essayists are similarly contributing towards a Post-Internet aesthetic.