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Perifrasis. Rev. Lit. Teor. Crit. | eISSN 2145-9045 | ISSN 2145-8987

“BREATHE”: THE SPATIAL TRIANGULATION OF EVERYDAY LITERARY EXPERIENCE IN AMBIENT LITERATURE AND M-READING

No. 26 (2022-05-01)
  • Juan Álvarez Umbarila
    Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal

Abstract

This paper proposes an analysis of “Breathe” (2018)—a smartphone short story that customizes its content according to the reader’s contextual data—through the “triangulation” of three interdependent spaces of interaction: story, technology, and environment. The central proposition is that the interrelation of these three proposed spaces can locate the literary experience of “Breathe” in real-life circumstances, and it builds on the presupposition that literature is not experienced in a vacuum, but in real-life situations that involve concrete purposes, technologies, audiences, and environments. Ultimately, this paper wonders about how embodied technologies and situated experiences affect our interactions with literary texts.

Keywords: Kate Pullinger, triangulation, ambient literature, m-reading, e-books

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