Exploring Image Culture Through Narrative: A Study on Jennifer Egan’s Twitter Fiction Black Box

Abstract

 Notable for the completeness with which it surrenders formally and artistically to the textual dictates of Twitter, Jennifer Egan's 2012 short science fiction Black Box is one of the most triumphant and fully-fledged fictions written in the form of new media. This paper explores the Twitter narrative employed in Black Box, pointing out that the serialized tweeting format of the story released via computer, mobile phone, or other electronic equipments brings readers immediate reading experience, allowing readers to sense the same feelings as the protagonist does. Through the experimental serialization of " Twitter " narrative, Egan expresses her concerns and worries about the security of the American security as well as the whole world in the post- " 9·11 " period and at the same time she embraces the virtues and pleasures of traditional storytelling delivered through a wholly new digital format. This paper concludes that Black Box is perhaps one of the boldest experiments of narrative form and is direct exploration into the contemporary image culture.