Digital poetics of contemporary Ukrainian literature: specifics of the QR code

Abstract

In recent years, due to the constant need for quick access to virtual reality, the QR code has become one of the most important digital technologies. Today, it is actively used in various spheres of human activity, for example, the distribution of advertising or the creation of artistic works, including fiction books by Ukrainian authors. As a result, we can observe changes in the structure of classical literary genres and in the text itself. Thus, the relevance of the study lies in the need to comprehend the QR code as a new phenomenon in contemporary Ukrainian literature in the context of digimodernist poetics. This study aims to analyze the possibilities of using QR codes in contemporary Ukrainian literature and determine what materials they are used to access in prose and poetry. The object of the study is the collection of poems “Artery” by Dmytro Lazutkin, the novels “Radio Night” by Yuri Andrukhovych, “Footprints on the Road” by Valerii Markus (Ananiev), and “Mozart 2.0” by Dorje Batuu. The subject of the study is QR codes placed in these works. The study uses comparative, intermedial, and structuralist methods of analysis. The results of the study show that the validity of using a QR code depends on its location in the printed text, as well as on what information can be obtained by scanning it. A QR code can be printed on the front cover of a book (“Mozart 2.0” by D. Batuu), on the back cover of a book (“Radio Night” by Yu. Andrukhovych) or inside the book next to the text fragment to which it refers (“Mozart 2.0” by D. Batuu), on a page with an illustration next to a poem (“Artery” by D. Lazutkin), or as a link at the bottom of the page (“Footprints on the Road” by V. Markus). Usually, the information encoded in a QR code contains a link to a page on the Internet with additional visual, audio, or textual materials posted on it. The novelty of the research results lies in the identification of the main functions of additional materials that can be accessed after scanning a QR code in a literary work: interactive, illustrative, informative and plot-forming. Further research prospects may be related, in particular, to the analysis of the QR code as a new phenomenon in printed dramatic works, since this article has considered only prose and poetry.