'There was Modernism. Then there was Digital.' Kenneth Goldsmith and the Updating of Literature

Abstract

The notion of literature as an obsolete form, out of sync with its own time, has been a familiar one ever since modern media displaced the literary from its previous centrality in culture. Expounding on poet Kenneth Goldsmith’s express ambitions of bringing literature up to date with contemporary media culture, this article engages the larger stakes of his work with a view to an ‘updated literature’ – a literature, as it is here considered, ‘beyond textuality.’ Informed by the theoretical perspectives of Friedrich Kittler and the broader field of media archaeology, the article posits literature’s turn toward the generalized ‘informational milieu’ (Terranova) of contemporary network culture and its concomitant break with modernist notions of medium specificity. Although the provocations of both Goldsmith and Kittler have received much previous attention, in seeking here to bring them together in a committed way, this article also moves beyond the limits of their own approaches to contemplate a ‘contemporary literature’ that – more than just a literature on a par with its time – is one that actively inhabits, modulates, reflects, and shares the modes of temporal production that define contemporary media culture.