T&F Proofs: Not For Distribution 11 Respiratory Narrative Multimodality and Cybernetic Corporeality in “Physio-Cybertext” Astrid Ensslin INTRODUCTION In this chapter, I take a particular interest in the corporeality of multimodal perception, which particularly comes to the fore in new media narratives and interactive environments. In so doing, I draw on recent developments in the theory of cyberculture as well as significant perceptive implications of multimodal discourse analysis. In particular, I shall be looking at the discourses of transcendence and of the multiple situatedness of the per- ceiving human body as put forward by cybertheorists and contemporary phenomenologists. The central assumptions of these theories tie in with the emphasis on the physical and physiological made by leading theoreti- cians of multimodal discourse analysis, more specifically Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen (2001) and Anthony Baldry and Paul J. Thibault (2006). Against this backdrop, I shall be revisiting the notion of intention- ality in reader-users of digital literature, notably cybertext. Using a so far rare example of what I would call “physio-cybertext,” namely Kate Pull- inger, Stefan Schemat, and babel’s The Breathing Wall (2004), 1 I explore the implications of Espen Aarseth’s (1997) “text machine,” an alternative textual communication model that places the encoded text (notably the underlying software code) at the center of literary communication and that I consider particularly suitable for the analysis of narratives that set out to “de-intentionalize” the receptive process. To provide a solid theoretical background to this undertaking, I explore some of the most common philo- sophical, psychological, and, not least, critical concepts of intentionality with respect to whether or not, or rather to what degree, they fit in with my own notion as applied to the aforementioned cybertext. THE PHYSICALITY AND INTENTIONALITY OF MULTIMODAL PERCEPTION Our bodies are spatially, temporally, socially, culturally, and, not least, physiologically situated, i.e., contingent upon a variety of external and Page 1st pages.indd 155 Page 1st pages.indd 155 5/7/2009 10:02:33 AM 5/7/2009 10:02:33 AM