Digital text in the space of modern culture

Abstract

The digital text within the domain of modern culture can be studied from the standpoint of the cultural-philosophical approach. It is based on M. Bakhtin’s text-centric conception of dialogism and on the post-structuralism practice of text deconstruction in the conceptions by J. Derrida and R. Barthes. The theories of these scientists reveal some basic principles how to understand the digital text phenomenon and what methods to apply in the analyses of these new cultural practices in the space of digital culture. The reduction of cultural information down to a “digital code” determines the dual logic of the text (the logic of culture and digital logic), which should become the subject of focused cultural studies. The notion of hypertextuality plays a special role in the understanding of the digital text, and the deconstructive practice of reading-writing is considered as a kind of the reader’s ‘material intervention’ into the text. It makes the digital text an ongoing autocommunication of the Author-Reader. This process is grounded on the computer interface metalanguage or cultural metalanguage, which organizes the digital text information in a specific way and influences both the functioning of the text as a cultural object and the way it is perceived by the user.