Bayer G (2018)
Publication Type: Book chapter / Article in edited volumes
Publication year: 2018
Publisher: De Gruyter
Edited Volumes: The Epistolary Renaissance: A Critical Approach to Contemporary Letter Narratives in Anglophone Fiction
City/Town: Berlin, Boston
Book Volume: 62
Pages Range: 277-288
DOI: 10.1515/9783110584813-016
David Mitchell's Twitter-Short-Story "The Right Sort" was published in dozens of tweets between July 14 and July 18, 2014. Later worked into a central episode of his (short) novel Slade House (2015), this short-paced experimental take on the epistolary form in a social-network age calls into question what 'letter' means in the digital age. Mitchell frequently elides the limitation of the social message service by employing a form of cross-post enjambement; yet he also demonstrates a commitment to restrict himself to the character limit as provided by the system, committing himself to a paratactical style that evokes another variant of the letter, the telegraph system. By engaging in this type of restricted writing, itself reminiscent of early post-war formal experiments in the style of OULIPO, Mitchell also puts stress on the format of the letter, which increasingly takes on spectral qualities, in full accordance with the short story's ghostly theme.
APA:
Bayer, G. (2018). The Right Sort of Form for "The Right Sort" David Mitchell's Tweet-Story. In Maria Löschnigg, Rebekka Schuh (Eds.), The Epistolary Renaissance: A Critical Approach to Contemporary Letter Narratives in Anglophone Fiction. (pp. 277-288). Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter.
MLA:
Bayer, Gerd. "The Right Sort of Form for "The Right Sort" David Mitchell's Tweet-Story." The Epistolary Renaissance: A Critical Approach to Contemporary Letter Narratives in Anglophone Fiction. Ed. Maria Löschnigg, Rebekka Schuh, Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2018. 277-288.
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