“Nothing Is Solid. Nothing Is Fixed”: Participatory Culture and Collaborative Authorship in Jeanette Winterson’s The Powerbook

Abstract

As recent reading theorists have noted, digitization has given rise to participatory culture, as the boundaries between author/reader, creator/user have blurred. While studies have focused on the expanding role of the reader, few have critiqued how contemporary writers respond to their eroding authority. This article explores Jeanette Winterson’s 2000 novel The Powerbook within this context and suggests that the novel depicts the dangers of collaborative authorship and forewarns that digitization forces authors to concede authority and power to readers who assume writerly positions. Studies on Winterson’s text have typically argued that the novel promotes democratic, and even feminist, notions of authorship. However, this article refutes these claims as the protagonist prohibits her collaborator from assuming an equal authorial role. Hall demonstrates how The Powerbook foresees contemporary authorship as limited and de-centered, which helps us understand why twenty-first century authors fear that digitization has created empowered readers.