The Yale Journal of Criticism

Literary criticism is filled with assumptions specific to print. As print materials are increasingly translated into electronic documents, these unrecognized assumptions tend to be overlaid onto electronic materials without thinking through how textuality must change when texts are electronic. Arguing that an electronic text should properly be considered a process rather than an object, this essay revisits definitions of work, text, and document. Two central premises need to be rethought: that work and text are disembodied, and that "work" is a convergent ideal construct. The essay proposes instead that both work and text be considered embodied and media-specific, and that "work" be thought of as an Assemblage rather than a convergent ideal.