"Rhetoric behind the digital screen": wayfinding across the splinternet of AI—a rhetorical quartet of an affective writer.

This article examines the evolving identity and rhetorical value of writers in the digital age, particularly amid the challenges posed by artificial intelligence (AI) and the splinternet—the fragmentation of cyberspace due to national digital sovereignties. Drawing on Elizabeth Forbes’s theory of the four facets of a developing writer (maker, artist, creator, performer) and Karen Lunsford’s concept of wayfinding (worlds apart, literacy in the wild, ecologies and networks, transfer), the study proposes a rhetorical quartet to understand how China-related writers navigate digital rhetorical circulation and affective economies. It argues that while AI can generate technically proficient texts, it lacks the human affect and nuanced rhetorical agency that sustain meaningful literary creation and circulation, especially across splintered digital spaces. The article highlights the importance of human writers’ affective engagement, ethical judgment, and cultural situatedness in maintaining the depth and connectivity of literature in a fragmented, AI-influenced digital environment.