Abstract

My essay aims to provide an overview of some recent trends and transformations which have emerged in the fields of cultural studies, British and Anglophone fiction and critical discourse analysis vis-à-vis the challenges posed by the new communication ecosystems and online environments since the advent of social and digital media, new technological affordances and user-generated contents. Drawing on Stuart Hall and Lawrence Grossberg, I shall attempt to address what appears to be a convergence among the different areas of scholarship represented in this issue by suggesting the adoption of a «conjunctural» approach to the discussion of some of these commonalities and differences in light of their consonance with the new media «revolution» and transformed political communication ecology. The analysis unfolds around two major interconnected concepts, post-truth and affect, seen as discursive signposts and correlatives of populism.