Computer-Mediated Communication in Postmodern Literature

Abstract

Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) has fundamentally transformed the landscape of postmodern literature by enabling new modes of textual production, identity construction, and narrative fragmentation. This paper examines the convergence of CMC and postmodern literary theory, tracing how digital platforms—hypertext, social media, virtual environments, and networked discourse—have become both the subject matter and the structural medium of contemporary fiction. Drawing on foundational theoretical frameworks by Walther, Leotard, Derrida, and Foucault, alongside close readings of cyberpunk and post-cyberpunk fiction, hypertext narratives, and digital storytelling, the paper argues that CMC does not merely reflect postmodern aesthetics but actively generates them. Key themes explored include the debentured digital subject, fragmented and nonlinear narrative forms, the collapse of authorial authority, gender dynamics in online communication, and the blurring of reality and simulation in cyberspace. The study situates these developments within the broader context of twenty-first-century literary culture, contending that an integrated framework of CMC theory and postmodern criticism offers indispensable tools for reading contemporary fiction in the digital age.