Technologies In The Internet Poetry: Expectations And Reality

Abstract

The study is devoted to the Internet poetry, the structure and composition of which are based on the creative use of Internet technologies. Based on the “Discussions about electronic literature” (1997-1998), the study gives analysis of opinions of researchers, poets and critics about the prospects for application of various technologies in the Internet poetry. The optimistic predictions made in the late 1990s are compared with examples of the actual implementation of technology-based intermediality in the modern Internet poetry. Some poetic phenomena such as a collection of poems written on the Google Map (“Marshrut 91” by Alexander Samoilov) as well as experimental hypertext works, including those created on the basis of the “paper” poems are analyzed in the study. At the same time, the authors give serious consideration to ideas of researchers about the modern communicative situation in the Internet poetry. The conclusion is made that despite many expectations associated with the possible creative use of technologies in the Internet poetry, the latter is currently taking a different path. This path is mainly associated with a new type of communication in the “poet – audience” system, while the use of creative Internet environments, online games, hypertexts and expressive means of other media is becoming quite a rare phenomenon: the modern audience expects sincerity, emotions and interactivity from an Internet poet rather than a game or an original technological solution.