Laboratory NIE: mutations in progress

The need for literature to respond effectively to a changed world order is central to Wu Ming 1's 'Memorandum' on the New Italian Epic (NIE), published for the first time on the internet in 2008. Between 2006 and 2008 different attempts were made to interpret such 'mutation' with 'integrated' (Baricco) or 'apocalyptic' (Scurati) readings of the impact of virtual reality. Common to these interpretations is the perceived need to move beyond postmodernism in order to regain an 'ethics' of narration. The 2009 debate between writers Tiziano Scarpa and Wu Ming 1 has questioned the notion that fiction needs to invade the public sphere with text-extrinsic means in order to be effective. This notion is articulated using an essay by Frans-Willem Korsten on the intrinsic analogies and differences between the poetic and capitalism, and with Laura Pugno's novel Sirene, which materializes post-human mutation with an intrinsic approach to the relationship between aesthetics and politics.