Crafting Authenticity: Reality, Storytelling, and Female Self-Representation through Instapoetry

Abstract

Abstract:This article focuses on the phenomenon of instapoetry, considering the ways that this literary genre exists as a subset of other digital poetic fields. In examining this genre, I use the work of a number of instapoets, considering how this cohort create an aesthetic that is specifically built for this medium of dissemination. In a digital age, questions of identity and the ways in which we disseminate become more and more complex. In this article, I examine how instapoetry tackles issues of authenticity, particularly in light of the highly contentious nature of influencer culture and Instagram as a site that has a tendency to distort our vision of the world. In this exploration, I interrogate the tensions between these perceptions and an era of poetic expression that has been charged with favoring authenticity above poetic craft (Watts). This article examines the stories told by instapoets as well as the depiction of the self that is curated via the site. Finally, in light of all of this, I explore the potential of Instagram and instapoetry as a location for women's self-expression and self-representation in the digital age, and examine how this genre has allowed for a greater range of identities and self-expressions to be reflected.