Techne and Literary Forms in the Digital Age: Material Turn in The Witness

This paper discusses ‘the literary form’ and ‘the material turn’ in the digital age from the perspectives of Baudrillard’s simulacra and simulation, media transposition, metaphysical ouroboros sequences, and the narrative of quantum superposition in The Witness. It proposes the resurgence of the techne genre by synthesizing all of these perspectives. The Witness reflects the unity of (post)human and the (virtual) world where diverse posthuman characters are integrated into hyper-reality. The infinitely repeated actions of murderers, witnesses, and chases mirror the process of self-meaning construction, echoing the idea that &quotno man ever steps in the same river twice.&quot Within this simulated reality, the characters embody de-representational simulacra, perpetually caught in the roles of murderer, witness, and accomplice. The Witness can be understood within the context of shifting thought, ontology, narrative, and media in the digital age.