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The Ephemerality of the Text: Towards a Performative Understanding of Digital Literature

Insight – Featured Image © Articulations / M. Schwindt (AI assistance: Firefly Image 3)

Insight – Featured Image © Articulations / M. Schwindt (AI assistance: Firefly Image 3)

Nina Tolksdorf – 2026

Literature created in digital media is often fluid and ephemeral, shaped by the shifting timelines of social platforms or by experimental forms in which texts move, fade, or disappear. Conventional literary studies, however, rely on the stability of the printed text, enabling rereading, quotation, and archival analysis. As digital texts become constitutively ephemeral, these methodologies face significant limitations. This contribution addresses this challenge by drawing on theatre, dance, and performance studies, disciplines accustomed to engaging with transient objects. By reformulating their methods, the project reframes ephemerality not as a technical byproduct but as a core poetic principle of digital literature, approaching literary texts through a flexible and performative analytical lens.

Title
The Ephemerality of the Text: Towards a Performative Understanding of Digital Literature
Publisher
EXC 2020 Temporal Communities
Location
Berlin
Keywords
Article; RA 2: Travelling Matters
Date
2026-02-15
Appeared in
Articulations – Curated Collection | Friederike Schäfer, Nina Tolksdorf (Ed.). Performativity
Type
Text
Coverage
This publication is the result of work carried out in Research Area 2: Travelling Matters.

How to cite:

Nina Tolksdorf. "The Ephemerality of the Text: Towards a Performative Understanding of Digital Literature". In 'Performativity', ed. Friederike Schäfer and Nina Tolksdorf. Articulations (February 2026): https://doi.org/10.60949/PSYQ-2586.