Our project is entitled “Reading Post Postmodernist Fictions of the Digital: Narrative, Technology and Cognition in the Twenty-First Century”. It is funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) (Funding Ref: AH/X001601/1) and will run from February 2023 to June 2026.

The project focuses on what we define as Post Postmodernist Fictions of the Digital (PPFDs): contemporary print fictions that imitate, incorporate, and/or utilize digital media, and also display thematic concerns for the digitally mediated worlds in which they are set.

The project aims to:

Propose a new literary genre: Post Postmodernist Fictions of the Digital (PPFDs) include contemporary print fictions (from c. 2000 onwards) that self-reflexively engage with, represent, and/or exploit digital media semiotically, structurally, ontologically, and/or thematically.

Investigate the narratological distinctiveness, and reception of PPFDs written in English.

Provide new methodologies for empirically investigating the effects of PPFDs on readers.

Offer new empirical insights into the ways that readers cognitively process PPFDs.

Produce a body of new research on PPFDs that will be disseminated via: an open access catalogue of PPFDs, a website, a social media account, conference papers, journal articles, and an international workshop.

Contribute to and engage the public in debates about what comes after postmodernism via public events, a project website, and a social media account.