This essay focuses on the reactions to the circulation of aphorisms and quotes from Charles Bukowski’s work available on social media. The detractors of this trend consider themselves admirers of the novelist and essentially object that those who improperly post his sentences are people who misunderstand his poetics and anti-romantic spirit. The article reports and comments some of these reactions and analyzes the text. A central thesis of the text maintains that the critical approach of these reactions undoubtedly captures elements of truth if traced back to the poetics of the writer, but they do not capture a fundamental point: quotes and aphorisms, that circulate on social media, are specific media themselves and they lend to citation in a peculiar way. Tracing the habit of quoting an iconic character of literature to the spirit that accompanies and marks the totality of his production is misleading, because it does not allow us to understand that whoever uses the quotation in turn behaves like a producer of images and captions, and therefore like an author. Perhaps those who quote Bukowski on the web do not necessarily know all of his literature or his place in the literary field. Rather, they express their position in a virtual ethnographic community through vernacular forms of communication, suited to the digital context in which the quote takes shape, to the point of reinterpreting the original meaning of the text in a subjective key.

Luca Martignani (2024). Charles Bukowski sui Social Media. Citazioni e reazioni. MEDIASCAPES JOURNAL, 23(1), 199-216.

Charles Bukowski sui Social Media. Citazioni e reazioni

Luca Martignani
2024

Abstract

This essay focuses on the reactions to the circulation of aphorisms and quotes from Charles Bukowski’s work available on social media. The detractors of this trend consider themselves admirers of the novelist and essentially object that those who improperly post his sentences are people who misunderstand his poetics and anti-romantic spirit. The article reports and comments some of these reactions and analyzes the text. A central thesis of the text maintains that the critical approach of these reactions undoubtedly captures elements of truth if traced back to the poetics of the writer, but they do not capture a fundamental point: quotes and aphorisms, that circulate on social media, are specific media themselves and they lend to citation in a peculiar way. Tracing the habit of quoting an iconic character of literature to the spirit that accompanies and marks the totality of his production is misleading, because it does not allow us to understand that whoever uses the quotation in turn behaves like a producer of images and captions, and therefore like an author. Perhaps those who quote Bukowski on the web do not necessarily know all of his literature or his place in the literary field. Rather, they express their position in a virtual ethnographic community through vernacular forms of communication, suited to the digital context in which the quote takes shape, to the point of reinterpreting the original meaning of the text in a subjective key.
2024
Luca Martignani (2024). Charles Bukowski sui Social Media. Citazioni e reazioni. MEDIASCAPES JOURNAL, 23(1), 199-216.
Luca Martignani
File in questo prodotto:
File Dimensione Formato  
Charles Bukowski sui Social Media .pdf

accesso aperto

Descrizione: Articolo in rivista
Tipo: Versione (PDF) editoriale
Licenza: Licenza per Accesso Aperto. Creative Commons Attribuzione (CCBY)
Dimensione 555.32 kB
Formato Adobe PDF
555.32 kB Adobe PDF Visualizza/Apri

I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.

Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/976576
Citazioni
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.pmc??? ND
  • Scopus ND
  • ???jsp.display-item.citation.isi??? ND
social impact