Rebirth of the author in Cyberspace: A comparative analysis of cyberpower of the imaginary in the weblogs of Jessica Zafra and Ian Rosales Casocot

• Main Author: Eduarte, Joahna T.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2009
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/3789
• Institution: De La Salle University

This research project appropriates the cyberpower of the imaginary concept of Tim Jordan in analyzing the weblogs of Jessica Zafra (jessicarulestheuniverse.com) and Ian Rosales Casocot (eatingthesun.blogspot.com). Cyberpower of the imaginary is conceived in relation to two other spheres – cyberpower of the individual and the social. But for the present study, the focus is on the imaginary, which as shall be seen, traverses the two other realms. Four factors come into play in forming a coherent cyberpower of the imaginary framework. These are the concepts of the cyborg; information codes, herein taken to be embodied by hypertextuality; the Panopticon; and the transcendental community of mind. In studying each aspect, other studies had been incorporated such as Donna Harraway’s cyborg consciousness, George P. Landow’s Hypertext as Reconfiguring the Author-Figure, Michel Foucault’s “What is An Author?”, and Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Community. The analysis reveals that both Zafra and Casocot embody cyborg consciousness as conceptualized by Donna Harraway. This is manifested in their oneness with technology, projection of “animal-like” personalities, irreverence for the natural order of things, constant self reinvention, resistance to established norms, and manipulation of language. However, there are still significant differences between the two as they treat their blogs differently, with Zafra treating hers as an online column and portfolio for her views while Casocot using his blog more as a confessional medium. Analysis also shows that the author-figure is indeed reconfigured in the blogs of both literary writers using Landow’s framework. The hypertextual characteristics of Landow are also embodied by the two blogs. And these results were arrived at after studying the entries of the two writers, as well as the comments posted by their readers. Cyborg consciousness and hypertextuality are associated with the utopian ideal of Jordan’s imagined community in cyberspace. The opposite side of this ideal is total surveillance, symbolized by Foucault’s Panopticon which is based on the inspection house designed by Jeremy Bentham. Both the writers (Zafra and Casocot) and their readers exhibit subversion of the subjectivity formed by this tool of disciplinary power. This subversion manifested in the interchangeable roles of the blog creators and readers is achieved precisely because Zafra and Casocot are cyborgs, whose very nature is subversive. Lastly, Zafra and Casocot’s blogs form distinct imagined communities that appear to be on the verge of achieving transcendence but has not reached it yet. Most of their readers appear satisfied with remaining largely as onlookers of or lurkers in their blogs or choose to actively participate only on issues from which they will derive a material benefit. After having examined the blogs of Zafra and Casocot using Tim Jordan’s cyberpower of the imaginary as the framework of the study, the results of the study seem to gravitate towards one definite conclusion: that the death of the author which Foucault predicted has not materialized. The blogs of Zafra and Casocot have shown that the traditional author described by Foucault in his essay has indeed been altered, but in its place, a cyborg-author has emerged. This cyborg-author embodies the characteristics propounded by Harraway, and at the same time, manifests the authorial tendency to retain power even as this power is distributed in different forms and quantities to the readers.