Medium and ethical worlds: notes on the construction of the Observatório da Literatura Digital Brasileira

Abstract

In this article, we articulate what Régis Debray defines as medium to a notion proposed by Maingueneau in his studies of the discursive ethos: ethical worlds. It is a matter of detailing what can be understood by values, beliefs and imaginary, terms as necessary as opaque when they appear to describe the effects of meaning that operate in the so called order of the sensitiveness. The hypothesis is that technical issues are at the heart of this operation and that, if we consider the inscriptions of the speeches in tangible materialities, we can better explain the distribution of the discourses in a given social organization and the institutional functions that authorize it. To this end, the concept of hypergender will be mobilized in order to present a case: the project that creates the Observatório da Literatura Digital Brasileira is the trigger for the reflection on “digital literature”, a rubric under construction.