"Escribir no es soledad" – Twitterature as Postautonomous Literary Practice in Cristina Rivera Garza and Heber Quijano

Abstract

Literary writing on Twitter, called Twitterature by authors and literary scholars, follows other rules than those of the official literary world. The conditions of production, publication and reception differ decisively, and these specificities make Twitterature an example of what Josefina Ludmer qualifies as postautonomous literature. In “Los muertos indóciles”, Cristina Rivera Garza develops a poetics of Twitterature that emphasizes the potential of collective writing on Twitter, drawing on Ludmer’s thesis. Traditionally, literary studies have difficulties with textual forms that cannot be cited or archived. With regard to digital literature, new tools might have to be developed accordingly. But, the medium’s “contraintes” in the best Oulipian sense, can also be transferred back to the medium of the book: in 2020, Heber Quijano published a slim volume with his tweets from the years 2008-2013: “Eco de un ave que estalla”. They can also be summarized and analyzed under the general term of postautonomous literature.