Trapped in the Net: the virtual worlds in recent Spanish poetry

Abstract

This paper focuses on the presence of the virtual world in some Spanish poets born since 1980, who have been considered the first digital natives. The members of this promotion selectively incorporate rhetorical procedures and discursive strategies inspired by the new realities of cyberspace, which is understood both as a poetic theme and as a structural device. Specifically, three representations in which private life connects with technological experience are analysed: the role of the Internet as a catalyst for meta-poetic reflection; the function of social networks in the configuration of contemporary identity; and the influence that certain platforms, links and mobile applications have on the interpersonal relationships and social transactions determining the post-capitalist universe of the early 21st century. More integrated than apocalyptic –in Eco’s terms–, the Internet-poets appearing in these pages neither confuse the medium with the message anymore, nor let themselves be tempted by virtual chimeras, but they have transformed their Internet browsing into a collective emblem, a sign of identity and an aesthetic commonplace that updates and revitalizes the eternal topoi.