Bookstagram‘as ir lietuvių literatūros laukas

In the time of the Internet and social networks, unconventional actors have an opportunity to establish themselves in the field of literature and influence it. Bookstagramers are literary field agents who work alongside professional/academic literary critique and dispose of the symbolic capital gained in virtuality. In reality, bookstagramers play a critical discourse role: they shape fashion (of reading or the relevance of a particular genre of literature), they might influence (and are influencing) a community of professional critics, creating a specific literary culture that reflects social network logic, and so on. The purpose of this article is to look at how Lithuanian bookstagramers evaluate literary works by posting on the social network Instagram (the intentions of these evaluations and their possible impact on the addressee). With the help of media and communication theories, the perspective of literary sociology, the critique of the reader’s response, applying the survey method, we delve into the empirical material (bookstagramers survey data). The research revealed the sociological picture of a Lithuanian bookstagramer, the intentions of writing about books on Instagram, and the specifics of the information published. In some cases, this study confirms the more general socio-cultural and psychological aspects previously known (women are more interested in culture, read more books, seek to communicate, make connections). A closer look at the respondents’ responses creates the preconditions for seeing the reality and virtuality of non-professional literary reflections in a particular society, where speaking is paramount. This discourse, driven by Instagram’s logic of architecture and social networking in general, does not lead to a broader discussion, deeper reflections on the works, as it is more reminiscent of brief impressionist speeches about a book read, sometimes inserting excursions about other personal hobbies (not necessarily related to reading). For this reason, it is not appropriate to apply the title of criticism to such recordings, but they should be considered a part of the discourse of Lithuanian literary criticism.