Book contents
- The Cambridge History of the Novel in French
- The Cambridge History of the Novel in French
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Conventions
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Beginnings: From the Late Medieval to Madame de Lafayette
- Part II The Eighteenth Century: Learning, Letters, Libertinage
- Part III After the Revolution: The Novel in the Long Nineteenth Century
- Part IV From Naturalism to the Nouveau Roman
- Part V Fictions of the Fifth Republic: From de Gaulle to the Internet Age
- 30 Oulipo, Experiment and the Novel
- 31 Theories of the Novel
- 32 The Caribbean Novel in French, 1958–2016
- 33 The North African Novel in French
- 34 Sub-Saharan Africa and the Novel in French
- 35 The Translingual Novel in French
- 36 Literary Prizes
- 37 Autofiction: Writing Lives
- 38 Trends in the Novel in French after 2000
- 39 Contemporary Women’s Writing in French
- 40 The Novel in French and the Internet
- Index
- References
40 - The Novel in French and the Internet
from Part V - Fictions of the Fifth Republic: From de Gaulle to the Internet Age
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 February 2021
- The Cambridge History of the Novel in French
- The Cambridge History of the Novel in French
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Figures
- Contributors
- Acknowledgements
- Note on Conventions
- Chronology
- Introduction
- Part I Beginnings: From the Late Medieval to Madame de Lafayette
- Part II The Eighteenth Century: Learning, Letters, Libertinage
- Part III After the Revolution: The Novel in the Long Nineteenth Century
- Part IV From Naturalism to the Nouveau Roman
- Part V Fictions of the Fifth Republic: From de Gaulle to the Internet Age
- 30 Oulipo, Experiment and the Novel
- 31 Theories of the Novel
- 32 The Caribbean Novel in French, 1958–2016
- 33 The North African Novel in French
- 34 Sub-Saharan Africa and the Novel in French
- 35 The Translingual Novel in French
- 36 Literary Prizes
- 37 Autofiction: Writing Lives
- 38 Trends in the Novel in French after 2000
- 39 Contemporary Women’s Writing in French
- 40 The Novel in French and the Internet
- Index
- References
Summary
This chapter provides an overview of the ways in which the boom of digital technologies has affected the novel. The Internet and especially social media are now recurrent themes in print fiction, which also often reflect the changes in our experience of space and time through new structures and styles. Beyond such thematic manifestations, however, the novel has seen more fundamental innovations that stretch its traditional boundaries. We can discern three main areas of evolution. First, the emergence of new modes of publication, including digital publishing, self-publishing, and writing platforms such as Wattpad have democratized the access to audiences and incited amateurs to write fiction. Secondly, the new modes of communication facilitate the exchange between authors and readers, while also bringing about the rise of the ‘influencers’, who are taking over the role of trend-setting from professional critics. Lastly, new modes of storytelling have emerged that rely on digital networks: interactive fictions that break up the linearity of the text and give agency to the reader, and blogs, websites, and social media experiments that play with temporality, form, and modes of interaction with the audiences.
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- The Cambridge History of the Novel in French , pp. 724 - 743Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2021