Writing in the Age of Immaterial Production Conference by Sergio Chejfec

Since before the Romantic period, the aesthetic regime of literature was dominated by the importance of the manuscript, which was considered to be the source of truth and a guarantee of originality. In the course of the twentieth century, technical reproduction and the resulting ‘crisis of aura’ in the visual arts did not affect the status of literature. But the digital revolution ousted the manuscript and opened up a new set of questions. How can we conceive writing in the age of immaterial production? How do we define what a work is, if an original physical copy is no longer necessary? The lecture is not intended to argue a particular theory, but to raise a series of questions and opportunities for reflection, based on specific reading experiences.