Abstract
Emotionalism has undergone a series of transformations since the late 1980s until the rise of Internet literature. Such writing techniques as teasing, joking, and skepticism unfold the trend of postemotionalism in Internet literature. Fictional writings such as the journey to immortality and fantasy novels are particularly engaged with fantastic emotions. Fictions of popular genres on the internet moves emotions from the dignified and elegant to the ordinary and the everyday. System novels and ACGN novels employ ACGN culture and game realism to create new patterns of emotions, that is, the pursuit of emotional depth is replaced with the upgrading of characters in the system. As a result, writing increasingly deviates from the metanarrative under the influence of “database writing.” Mechanisms of pleasure, visual effect and disenchanting writing become new approaches to creating emotions in Internet literature under the business mode. Readers’ autonomous interpretation is governed by “fan economy” and replaces the exploration and experience of the author’s emotion. Fredric Jameson’s postmodernist explanation of emotional commercialization has further impact on Internet literature, a literature that is permeated with postemontionalism characterized by consumer culture. The cultural psychology and emotional comfort underlying postemotional representations reflect the erotic desire and spiritual undertones of both the authors and the readers, and contribute to the unique charm of Internet literature.
Keywords
Internet literature; narrative mechanism; postemotion; psychological symptoms
First Page
139
Last Page
149
Recommended Citation
Wang, Wanbo. 2022. "Postemotional Representations and Psychological Symptoms in the Narrative Mechanism of Internet Literature." Theoretical Studies in Literature and Art 42, (5): pp.139-149. https://tsla.researchcommons.org/journal/vol42/iss5/12
