Martens s4486129 / 1 “The portrait of pseudo-intellectualism”: Rupi Kaur’s posture and reception in the literary field Laura Martens MA Literair Bedrijf MA Scriptie Letterkunde Supervisor: dr. M.N. Koffeman May 31st, 2021 Martens s4486129 / 2 Martens s4486129 / 3 Abstract This master’s thesis aims to add to the research surrounding the phenomenon of Instapoetry, by looking at the position-taking of instapoet Rupi Kaur and her reception. Using Pierre Bourdieu’s notions of capital and the literary field, I aim to show the interaction and negotiation between Instapoetry and the literary field. In addition to Bourdieu’s concepts, I have made use of Jérôme Meizoz’s posture theory. I focused on Kaur’s output on Instagram, comparing her online presence in 2014, the year in which Kaur self-published Milk and Honey, to 2018, the year after the publication of her second collection The sun and her Flowers. It appears that Kaur employs four different postures online: the ‘influencer’; the politically engaged poet; the South Asian poet; and the private poet. The reception of Kaur helps place Instapoetry in the literary field. Instapoetry finds itself at the intersection of internet culture and the literary field, in which it is part of the avant-garde, the newcomers. Keywords: Instapoetry, Instagram, E-literature, Rupi Kaur, reception, posture, literary field Martens s4486129 / 4 Inhoudsopgave Abstract ................................................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 6 Theoretical framework .......................................................................................................................... 15 1.1 The literary field .................................................................................................................................. 15 1.2 Capital ................................................................................................................................................. 17 1.3 Posture ................................................................................................................................................. 19 1.4 Internet culture .................................................................................................................................... 21 Social media .......................................................................................................................................... 21 Instagram ............................................................................................................................................... 22 E-literature ............................................................................................................................................. 24 1.5 Methodology ....................................................................................................................................... 25 Chapter 2: The Poet ............................................................................................................................... 28 2.1 Background ......................................................................................................................................... 28 2.2 Posture ................................................................................................................................................. 30 The ‘influencer’ ..................................................................................................................................... 31 The politically engaged poet ................................................................................................................. 32 The South Asian poet ............................................................................................................................ 34 Private poet ............................................................................................................................................ 36 2.3 On-/Offline .......................................................................................................................................... 38 Books ..................................................................................................................................................... 38 Tour ....................................................................................................................................................... 40 Social Media .......................................................................................................................................... 40 Website .................................................................................................................................................. 41 2.4 Quantitative Analysis .......................................................................................................................... 42 Photographs ........................................................................................................................................... 42 Poems .................................................................................................................................................... 45 Results ................................................................................................................................................... 45 2.5 Qualitative Analysis ............................................................................................................................ 46 2.6 Form and Themes ................................................................................................................................ 49 Chapter 3: The followers ....................................................................................................................... 53 Results ....................................................................................................................................................... 55 Visual .................................................................................................................................................... 57 Text ....................................................................................................................................................... 57 Emotion ................................................................................................................................................. 58 Chapter 4: The critics ............................................................................................................................ 60 4.1 Results Instapoetry phenomenon ......................................................................................................... 62 Martens s4486129 / 5 Style ....................................................................................................................................................... 63 Themes/Ideas ......................................................................................................................................... 64 Author/Intention .................................................................................................................................... 64 Impact .................................................................................................................................................... 66 Other ...................................................................................................................................................... 67 4.2 Results Rupi Kaur reviews .................................................................................................................. 67 Style ....................................................................................................................................................... 67 Symbolism ............................................................................................................................................. 69 Author/Intention .................................................................................................................................... 69 Other ...................................................................................................................................................... 71 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................. 72 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 73 Works cited............................................................................................................................................ 77 Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 85 A: quantitative analysis 2014 .................................................................................................................... 85 Photography .......................................................................................................................................... 85 Poetry ...................................................................................................................................................