Fictionalizing Digital Trauma: The Mediation of Trauma Through Cancel Culture in Yomi Adegoke’s the List

Abstract

This paper examines the fictionalization of cancel culture as a type of digital trauma in Yomi Adegoke's debut novel, The List (2023). This study examines how the use of media technology has created a form of digitally mediated trauma, most notably, cancel culture, defined as a form of public shaming started online to ostracize those who committed moral transgressions. This is a topic that is under-studied in recent literature. drawing on Anna Menyhért and Mykola Makhortykh's framework alongside Eve Ng's critical analysis of cancel culture. The study employs a qualitative methodology based on close reading and narratological analysis to examine Adegoke's novel. The primary finding is that Adegoke's narrative techniques and traumatic fictions elements echo the importance of conventional trauma to reinforce the instability produced by the digital world. This study contributes to the emerging discourse on digital trauma studies, literary analysis, and social fiction. The study concludes that Adegoke's fiction demonstrates the tenuous boundary between the virtual and physical worlds in the digital culture.