'Don't send me your saliva': fantasies of disembodiment in email and epistolary technologies

This paper is part of a larger investigation about the relation between electronic mail and the epistolary tradition. The overall project looks at the history of the paper-based postal service in order to identify points of contrast and comparison with the system of electronic mail. It argues that the points of congruity between a letter and electronic mail remain under-theorised by those interested in epistolary practice and those that research computer mediated communication. In this paper I explore and critique one of the key terms — the notion of disembodiment — that functions in both systems of communication. “Disembpdiment” refers to the perceived absence of the corporeal body in the communicative act. But the term also speaks to the desire for the circulation of “pure” information unfettered by the materiality of the system on which it depends and free from the exigencies that past technologies exert upon the present.