Short fiction in a transnational digital age

Given the state of communication and publication today, it would be impossible to discuss ‘Short fiction in a transnational digital age’ without engaging in some way with digital media. The World Wide Web is an international phenomenon that is exerting influence upon culture and literature in ways we cannot yet fully understand. Short fiction’s involvement with digital media within this network can be linked to changing habits and perceptions on both the individual and societal level. In these evolving spaces, short fiction might still be approached in a traditional manner, as a unique, stable aesthetic unit, but it also requires that we take into consideration its position in a complex network of devices and processes. Certainly, many forms of literature are being significantly affected by the development of digital media. However, given its associations with experimentation and its generic elasticity, short fiction, in its many forms, appears well adapted for negotiating the evolving paradigms of digital reading and writing in their interconnection with literary networks and communities. In this article I will address some of the changes in the reading and writing of short fiction occurring through digital media and will suggest how short fiction might propose a space to explore the impact of these developments on a transnational level.