Internetica: Poetry in the digital age

Abstract

This article proposes a new conceptual framework for understanding poetry in the age of the internet. By combining literary and technologic theories into one theory named ‘Internetica’, it typifies the structures and roles of internet poetry and poets. A grounded analysis of 200 poems revealed three types of web poems: poems about the internet, poems first published on the internet, and poems written through the internet. The analysis presents various distinctions among these three types of poems, including their subjects, length, and originality. An integrative analysis of these categories allows for a redefinition of the role of poets in the digital age as playing witnesses: ever-present internet users, who, thanks to their creativity, witness the medium while playing with it by using the tools that it offers them.