I giga di Gige. L’impatto dell’anonimato nella comunicazione contemporanea

Abstract

The concept of authoriality of a text, or the indexal link between a creative individuality and a cultural artifact, is not an anthropological universal. There have been and still are cultures in which contributing to pass on or to circulate existing texts, even if modifying them, is more important than creating new ones or guaranteeing the recognition of the creator’s own innovative gesture. As the statute and the practices of authorship have been historically established, however – in literature as well as in the other arts – a parallel development has taken place of modes of writing and enunciation aimed at erasing or dissimulating the traces of the link between the political-civil identity of authors and their work(s). The purpose of this operation can be manifold: escaping from political or social censures; safeguarding private life; enjoying the playful results of hiding; multiplying the creative demands within the same person; etc. Technically, the dissimulation of the author can take place through different enunciative procedures, among which the best known are undoubtedly those of pseudonymous, heteronymous, and anonymous communication. They have produced numerous texts in the history of cultures, from pasquinate to Pessoa, from Kierkegaard to Banksy, but take on a new look, and enjoy an unusual proliferation, with the advent of digital writing technologies, which allow an increasingly easier and effective removal of the links that correlate an author and her/his creation. On the basis of a wide historical-cultural reflection on the instances and mechanisms of the author’s concealment, the paper intends to concentrate, in particular, on its outcomes, drifts, and excesses in the digital sphere, exploring its various socio-cultural contexts, communication purposes, and meaning effects.