Free Speech and Digital Discourse in Nicola Barker’s "H(A)PPY"

• Authors: Joseph Andrew Darlington
• Languages of publication: EN

Abstracts

EN

Nicola Barker’s H(A)PPY (2017) depicts a dystopian future in which all speech is monitored and regulated. Politically dubious topics are flagged, metanarratives like religion and history are censored, and even words expressing heightened emotional states are marked as dangerous. Barker uses innovative techniques to visualise the warping of language under conditions of totalitarian surveillance. In analysing Barker’s novel, this paper applies the findings of digital discourse studies to the novel’s content while arguing that its experimental techniques reflect a distinct break from the digital information stream. Barker’s innovations are a formal route to escape the deadlock of our current politics.

DE

Der Artikel enthält das Abstract ausschließlich in englischer Sprache.

FR

L'article contient uniquement le résumé en anglais.

Keywords

EN

Digital writing; graphic surface; free speech; dystopia; experimental writing

DE

FR

• Publisher: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Marii Curie-Skłodowskiej
• Journal: Lublin Studies in Modern Languages and Literature
• Year: 2020
• Volume: 44
• Issue: 2

Dates

published

2020

online

2020-07-14

Contributors

author

Joseph Andrew Darlington

References

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Identifiers

DOI

10.17951/lsmll.2020.44.2.99-112