Sensations and solidarity: Affect, ambience, and politics in digital literary narratives

Abstract

This article studies the literary, affective, and political possibilities generated by digital literary micro-narratives published on Terri-bly Tiny Tales, a popular micro-blogging platform in India. More specifically, it will study the narratives which relate to the theme of gender politics, rape culture, patriarchy, misogyny, etc. within the contextual framework of a change in the nature of public discourse in Indian digital spaces after the brutal rape and murder of a young resident of New Delhi in 2012. This article argues that the peculiar digital and affective poetics of micro-narratives combined with their modality of circulation and the infrastructure of digital media platforms produces a form of ambient politics, characterised by its sensory and mundane qualities.