Platformalism: Finding the Forms of Platform Literature
In this thesis, I identify platform literature as an emergent genre of the third generation of electronic literature. Platform literature is multimodal and devised for, published on and distributed through pre-existing and proprietary online platforms. The architecture and features of these platform...
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| Format: | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2021
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/64850/ |
| _version_ | 1848800174577549312 |
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| author | Cox, George |
| author_facet | Cox, George |
| author_sort | Cox, George |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | In this thesis, I identify platform literature as an emergent genre of the third generation of electronic literature. Platform literature is multimodal and devised for, published on and distributed through pre-existing and proprietary online platforms. The architecture and features of these platforms heavily influence both the form and content of platform literature: for instance, the 280 characters of the tweet, the moments of engagement in an interactive film on Netflix, and the participatory comments section of a YouTube video. However, despite the relatively recent emergence of platform literature, the genre bears clear resemblances to print precursors, continuing and innovating upon the forms of these analogue antecedents.
Beyond now ubiquitous Instapoetry, I identify three other sub-genres of platform literature: Twitter fiction, Netflix interactive films and YouTube performance poetry. These sub-genres develop forms found in print forebears—the letter in epistolary fiction, the flowchart in the Choose Your Own Adventure series of gamebooks, and the archive of unbound books in boxes respectively—and entwine them with the features of the platforms they are found on. Throughout the thesis, I use a descriptive formalist analysis—which I describe as platformalism—that answers a call among scholars of contemporary electronic literature to be attentive to the proprietary platforms on which creators publish their works as much as the content of the works themselves. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:47:22Z |
| format | Thesis (University of Nottingham only) |
| id | nottingham-64850 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:47:22Z |
| publishDate | 2021 |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-648502025-02-28T15:11:41Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/64850/ Platformalism: Finding the Forms of Platform Literature Cox, George In this thesis, I identify platform literature as an emergent genre of the third generation of electronic literature. Platform literature is multimodal and devised for, published on and distributed through pre-existing and proprietary online platforms. The architecture and features of these platforms heavily influence both the form and content of platform literature: for instance, the 280 characters of the tweet, the moments of engagement in an interactive film on Netflix, and the participatory comments section of a YouTube video. However, despite the relatively recent emergence of platform literature, the genre bears clear resemblances to print precursors, continuing and innovating upon the forms of these analogue antecedents. Beyond now ubiquitous Instapoetry, I identify three other sub-genres of platform literature: Twitter fiction, Netflix interactive films and YouTube performance poetry. These sub-genres develop forms found in print forebears—the letter in epistolary fiction, the flowchart in the Choose Your Own Adventure series of gamebooks, and the archive of unbound books in boxes respectively—and entwine them with the features of the platforms they are found on. Throughout the thesis, I use a descriptive formalist analysis—which I describe as platformalism—that answers a call among scholars of contemporary electronic literature to be attentive to the proprietary platforms on which creators publish their works as much as the content of the works themselves. 2021-08-04 Thesis (University of Nottingham only) NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en arr https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/64850/1/Platformalism%20GC%20CORRECTIONS%203.21%20.pdf Cox, George (2021) Platformalism: Finding the Forms of Platform Literature. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham. digital platforms digital media platform literature digital communications Twitter YouTube Netflix |
| spellingShingle | digital platforms digital media platform literature digital communications YouTube Netflix Cox, George Platformalism: Finding the Forms of Platform Literature |
| title | Platformalism: Finding the Forms of Platform Literature |
| title_full | Platformalism: Finding the Forms of Platform Literature |
| title_fullStr | Platformalism: Finding the Forms of Platform Literature |
| title_full_unstemmed | Platformalism: Finding the Forms of Platform Literature |
| title_short | Platformalism: Finding the Forms of Platform Literature |
| title_sort | platformalism: finding the forms of platform literature |
| topic | digital platforms digital media platform literature digital communications YouTube Netflix |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/64850/ |