The text is dead! Long live the text!

Whither literature in an age of semiotic overload? In a discussion of J.M. Coetzee's El Polaco, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr's La plus secrete memoire des hommes and Zoe Wicomb's Still Life, this essay suggests that a dialectic between textual evasion and the intertextual productivity of commentary, translation and generative AI might show the way forward.

Automated summary

This essay examines the future of literature in an age of semiotic overload. By discussing various works and authors, the essay suggests that a dialectic between textual evasion and the intertextual productivity of commentary, translation, and generative AI may provide a way forward.