Nonlinearism: The Paradigm That Replaced Postmodernism. On the Materials of Song Poetry and Cyberliterature

This article is an attempt to delineate a new paradigm in the literary arts (including print literature and song poetry). According to the author’s hypothesis, this paradigm cannot be attributed simply to the onset of “digital culture.” The primary reason for the emergence of the new paradigm is the transition from the modernist-postmodernist text to the non-linear text. The transition began in print literature, continued in song poetry, and found its ultimate expression in cyberliterature. The second reason was a change in the artistic paradigm. According to Roland Barthes, in literature, the era of authorial intent (with the author’s mind as the focus) had given way to the period of textuality before reception (which focused on consciousness) became dominant. In this article, the author hypothesizes that at the end of the twentieth century the active postmodernist reception of literary texts was replaced by interactive nonlinear reception.