‘Courage to be Dislike’: Strategies and Approach of Insta-Poetry in Digital Era

Abstract

Heavy criticism continues to come along with the popularity of Instagram-media based poetry (further ‘Instapoetry’) pioneered by Lang Leav through the work Love and Misadventure (2014). A lot of appreciation or praise for similar works is considered as an impairment of the intellectualism and craftmanship for poet due to the poetry landscape that relies on accessible and honest. The classic formulation of poetry as the best choice of words in the best composition is immediately destroyed by the presence of poetry written in the language of simplistic writing. Therefore, it is necessary to investigate the quality of Lang Leav’s works as a demand and accountability for literary criticism. By using a formalism approach that focuses on the three intrinsic elements of this poem (diction, syntax, stylistics), hence it is found that Leav’s poems do not carry out extreme reforms which deny the classical formulation of poetry. Leav conducted a series of innovations in the form of strategies and approaches which were adjusted to the spirit of the age so that her works could be accepted in the wider community.