The reflection of the simulation and virtuality phenomena in the context of new media in literature: Wolfgang Hohlbein's novel entitled "Im Netz der Spinnen"

Computer and internet emerged as the postmodern new media of the globalizing world in the second half of the 20th century. In this context, in the first part of the study, new transformations such as interaction, virtuality, digitality, multi-media, network connection and non-linearity revealed by the computer which can be machine, media machine and media simultaneously and by the internet, are discussed. Another aspect undergoing a new transformation has become the virtual reality, virtual space, virtual body and virtual identity as an alternative to the reality, space, time, body and identity of the physical world. Thus, the simulation based on the digital and virtual phenomena emerged as a result of the new media. In the second part of the study, the place of these new transformations that emerged within the scope of the new media such as computer and internet in literary studies was examined. Here, writing and literature were evaluated separately. The digital text as the software text, the digital text as the abstract transformation of the traditional printed text, the digital text as the transfer of the traditional printed text directly to the computer, the virtual text that emerged as a result of the networking of digital text units to different types of text units and the virtual text in which virtualized cases have been experienced are regarded on the writing side. The new transformations on the literature side were examined in the context of hyperculture, hypermedia, hypertext and hyperfiction. They were explained in the context of the new roles undertaken by the traditional printed text, the traditional writer and reader on both writing and literature sides. And some of the poststructuralist literature and media theories constitute the starting point of these new transformations that emerged in this way. As a result, literary studies with its components has been simulated on the basis of digital and virtual phenomena. In the third part of the study, the reflections of the digital and virtual phenomena were traced in Wolfgang Hohlbein's novel entitled "Im Netz der Spinnen" on the basis of the mentioned new transformations. These phenomena were explained in relation to the dissolution of two opposing concepts within each other in line with the different reactions of the four selected figures in the novel to the different incidents that they experienced. The consequence of these explanations is that the experience of simulation and virtualized cases based on digital and virtual phenomena has disrupted the cognitive processes such as perception, attention, memory, thought, language and learning caused by this kind of dissolution. The reason why these figures are shaken in such a cognitive way is that they are faced with these phenomena in the period of transition from the traditional media to the new media such as the computer and the internet.