Computer-Generated Text as a Posthuman Mode of Literature Production

Abstract

A central idea of posthumanism in a technological society is the actual transition of the human towards a post-human entity, the cyborg. This entanglement between humanity and technology can not only be found in – actual and fictional – cyborgs, but also in computer-generated text production. Through the close collaboration between human creativity and artificial intelligence, algorithmically facilitated writing is emerging as an art form that is proving promising for literary analysis in a posthuman context. This article will examine computer-generated fiction as a new, posthuman mode of text production and use poststructuralist and related theory – mainly Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, and Susan Sontag – to explore the implications that such forms hold for the roles of authors, readers, and that of literary critics and scholars.