Nosthetics: Instagram poetry and the convergence of digital media and literature

Abstract

This article considers the proliferation of nostalgic aesthetics in Instagram poetry (‘instapoetry’). Though often overlooked, the relationship between the platform and the poetry itself is a vibrant entry point into debates about the handwritten, analogue and vintage styles of instapoetry. Connecting modernist and postmodernist arguments about nostalgia, this article provides a critical and conceptual lens with which to analyse the visual aspects of nostalgic aesthetics – referred to as ‘nosthetics’ – characteristic of instapoetry, investigating how and why the genre impersonates the pre-digital, analogue past. Combining scholarship on platforms, nostalgia and instapoetry shows how the concept of nosthetics can be used as a framework for literary and visual analysis of instapoetry. The theoretical framework proposed recommends three developments for those researching nostalgic aesthetics in instapoetry. First, greater attention should be paid to the platform. Second, engagement with scholarship on popular culture and nostalgia is needed. Finally, it is insightful to return to the notion of space at the heart of Johannes Hofer's original definition of nostalgia.