ABSTRACT
This chapter demonstrates a method for analysing the function of narrative in newly emerging ethical formations. It collectively theorises those formations as post-literate cultures. Post-literate cultures rely on literate and pre-literate practices, but they have dimensions that are entirely new, facilitated by new media technologies and new narrative structures, including those found in games, reality television, and social media platforms. Whether as remnants, effects, or artefacts of emerging forms of popular culture, or as new and incipient political movements, I demonstrate how these discourses operate, what they mean, and how they can be seen to be changing ethics and morals on a mass scale. The corpus I use to demonstrate the argument includes political speeches, design theory texts, and excerpts from social media, all of which can be shown to be interconnected, mutually reliant, and focused on the ‘thou-shalt-nots’ that underpin any ethically charged utterances.
