Jacqueline Vela Humanities
Melancholy, Memory and the Millennial Experience in Digital Poetry
Jacqueline Vela’s research project will focus on the writings of contemporary poets of the 2010s that have emerged and performed their pieces via the Internet. Closely following this new genre of e-literature, Vela will observe both the bodies of work and digital platforms of poets such as Yesika Salgado, Danez Smith, Olivia Gatwood, and Ocean Vuong among others so to explore how the rapid explosion of technology and the phenomenons of online culture have influenced the form, style, and themes of these so-called insta-poets. With special attention to diverse narratives representing marginalized communities across class, race, and gender, Vela’s study will further investigate how this group of writers has enabled mass accessibility, challenged the literary gate-keeping, and what this may signify for the future of the publishing landscape.
Photo caption:
Jackie meets with Olivia Gatwood, one of the poets she is analyzing in her project, when Gatwood performed at Cornerstone in Berkeley in October 2019.
