The Displeasure of the Text

Phenomenology of writing in platform capitalism

Abstract

The article focuses on the phenomenology of freelance writing on digital copywriting platforms. Based on autobiographical experiences, the text gives an insight into varying facets of the precarity of writing work in the 21st century. The core question addressed is that of how structural changes may influence lived experience. Thus, this article is not only concerned with poor working conditions; it also, above all, takes into account the fact that with the transformation of writing in platform capitalism, not only the writing, but also the writer changes. If the words put together in the piece work of digital texting and advertising are essentially dead, because they neither correspond to an experience, nor to a desire, nor to a form of knowledge, what shadow falls on the writing subject?