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VISUAL POETRY ON THE INTERNET: CREATING A MYTH OF A METAMODERN POET // ΠΡΑΞΗMΑ. Journal of Visual Semiotics. 2024. Issue 1 (39). P. 82-101

The aim of the article is to investigate the modern phenomenon of poetry in social networks in terms of its artistic and social value, legitimacy and role in the cultural context. First of all, its main features, which are influenced by the nature of the social media platform itself, are established. The following aspects are identified: interactivity, the perception of the poem as content, a hybrid audiovisual form, the transformation of the criteria of what is considered literature under the influence of the rules of social networks and the desire for popularity and commercial success, a tool for building digital identity, performativity. All of them influence the transformation of habits of consumption of poetic content, as well as its assessment. Secondly, poets attempt to balance the roles of an influencer and a traditional poet, which contributes to the creation of a mythologized image through the way they maintain their account, certain linguistic and visual markers within the posts. In addition, poems have therapeutic properties because they come in the form of daily emotional and visual experiences. They also not only have personal value for the individual, but also spread important social messages relevant to the Western mass culture currently. Thirdly, the article establishes how poets develop their virtual identity and how this affects the content they create, which has the characteristics of being authentic and fake at the same time. Poets’ work, like the image they create on social media, oscillates between these two poles, conveying an ambivalent emotional message. A person’s subjective experience is put at the center. The movement of Western culture beyond postmodernism towards the currently developing metamodernism is analyzed. Sincerity versus irony is the main opposition here, relevant for the media text subgenre in question. Metamodernism combines only emerging different states of culture that have replaced the postmodern ones, so the term does not have the necessary stability and accuracy for it to be widespread. Several interpretations of the term are analyzed in the article, and common elements are pointed out. For instance, in poetry we can note its characteristic use of modernist techniques in a new context and with different goals. Another example is that at the forefront is a conscious attempt to connect the unconnected, namely, the opposite poles of binary oppositions, which postmodernism tried to deconstruct. The identification of a tendency for the recuperative qualities of literature and art to become important in contemporary society and culture speaks to the scholarly significance of the paper, as does the overall interdisciplinary nature of the article. The article also reflects new aspects of the characterization of the contemporary state of poetry, which is moving from elitism to utilitarianism and dehierarchy.

Keywords: social networks, visual poetry, metamodernism, New Sincerity, myth