Louise Evans
Writing and reading the (#)influencer: female self-fashioning in poetry in the Spanish Golden Age and Instapoesía of today.
Biography
Louise earned both her BA in English & Hispanic Studies, and her MRes in Hispanic Studies, at University of Liverpool. Her MRes focused on the ways in which Spanish Instagram poetry (Instapoesía) is changing the face of contemporary literature through certain linguistic and visual changes afforded by the digital medium. Through analysis of a shorter, more concise style and the permeation of ‘el lenguaje informático,’ her research examined the ways in which contemporary digital poetry is changing not only the role of the reader, but the ‘acto de observar’ itself (Vilariño Picos: 2013).
Outside of her studies, Louise works as a Spanish Tutor for the University’s Open Languages programme, creating and delivering the Spanish Stage1 module as well as moderating her colleague’s Spanish modules.
She is the co-founder of Pangea Poetry, an annual multilingual spoken word and music event that aims to share different languages, cultures and experiences, which is in its early stages of Arts Council Funding application. Louise writes poetry and has been published in Give Poetry A Chance: The Anthology (and The Anthology II), all proceeds of which are donated to Scouse Kitchen charity.
Research Interests
Louise's research examines the ways in which female poets from both the early modern and contemporary, digital age(s) employ their respective mediums to negotiate a space for themselves and their work within their ‘transformed’ literary fields.
Whilst both epochs in question – the era following the invention of the printing press in early modern Iberia, and the rise of social media in the digital age of Spain, today - follow a period of unprecedented, technological advancement and innovation, the question remains as to why these two, particular periods may be connected in the literary histories that they project. By analysing two creative patronage economies in Spain’s literary history as junctures of liminality, this research posits that social media poetry of today is influenced by historical poetic modes, solidified by two ‘epoch-making’ events in history.
This investigation concludes that researchers may better understand the precarious (female) position of poets through examination of the figure of the (#)influencer within these two patronage economies. In analysing the positionalities and work of Instapoeta Elvira Sastre and Golden Age muse Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, amongst others, a duality is lent to two sets of writers embarking on a process of literary self-fashioning within their texts - enjoying a nuanced sense of creative liberty, whilst confined to comply to contextual obligations to the new (or advancing) mediums in which they operate.