The Pragmatics of Internet Memes (Benjamins Current Topics)

"What is a meme? What is in a meme? What does 'living in/with memes' actually mean? What do memes mean to human beings dwelling in a life-world at once connected and fragmented by the internet and social media? Answers to and ways of answering these and other meme questions that arise in social events represent human assistance in or resistance to meaning making. A pragmatic perspective on internet memes as a way of seeing in social life experience offers a unique window on how meme matters in mediated (inter)actions turn out to be inextricably intertwined with human beings' presencing and essencing in the life-world. Ultimately, this volume seeks to reveal what and how serious if not unsayable concerns can be concealed behind the seemingly humorous, carefree and colorful carnival of internet memes across cultures, contexts, genres and modalities. This book will be of some value to anyone keen on the dynamics of memes and internet pragmatics and on critical insights that can be garnered in kaleidoscopic multimodal communication. Originally published as special issue of Internet Pragmatics 3:2 (2020)"-- Provided by publisher The Pragmatics of Internet Memes Editorial page Title page Copyright page Table of contents IntroductionThe pragmatics of internet memes 1.The essence of internet pragmatics 2.From internet pragmatics to internet memes 3.A brief overview of the volume Acknowledgements References Internet memes we live by (and die by) 1.What’s in an (internet) meme? 2.Internet memes are in! 2.1The COVID-19 pandemic 2.2The ‘stay home, stay safe’ meme 2.3The ‘wear a mask’ meme 3.We are in internet memes! 4.Concluding remarks: Internet memes we die by? Acknowledgements References Stylistic humor across modalities 1.Introduction 2.Classical Art Memes: Intertextuality and stylistic humor 3.The General Theory of Verbal Humor 4.The data 5.Data analysis 5.1Emotion-based Classical Art Memes 5.2Situation-based Classical Art Memes 6.Concluding remarks References Memes and the media narrative 1.Introduction 2.Internet memes and pragmatics 3.Unpacking a slippery term: Internet meme 4. Just Do It: The Nike-Kaepernick controversy 5.Media narratives and the framing of reality 6.Conclusion References On the interaction of core and emergent common ground in Internet memes 1.Introduction: On the term ‘meme’ 2.Internet memes 3.Internet memes as communicative items 3.1Defining Internet memes as communicative items 3.2Meme genres 4.The pragmatics of Internet memes 4.1Formal and functional motivation of memes 4.2A dynamic approach to common ground 5.A 5-way typology of memes 5.1Established advice animals 5.2 situation memes (Established meme/topic connection): Comment on circumstance chosen by the user 5.3Memetic Silliness (Katz and Shifman: linguistic, visual, embodied, other) 5.4 comment memes (Established meme/topic connection): Comment on contributions by other users 5.5 reaction memes: No meme/topic connection: Reaction to contributions by other users 6.Beyond established memes: Sentiments and codes 7.Conclusion References Exploring local meaning-making resources 1.Introduction 2.Humor in internet memes 3.Meme localization, resemiotization and multimodality 4.Chinese memes? Biaoqingbao 5.The data 6.Data analysis 6.1“Diaosi” 6.2Digital culture 6.3Popular culture 6.4Politics 6.5Chinese institutional contexts 7.Discussion and conclusions References Internet memes as multilayered re‐contextualization vehicles in lay-political online discourse 1.Objectives and focus of this paper 2.Literature review 2.1Internet-enabled ‘participatory culture’ and lay-political discourse 2.2Recontextualization of political contents through memetic discourse, or: On the “Memeification of politics” 2.3Enhanced intertextuality through pseudo- and pop-cultural references in PIMs 3.Data and methodology 4.Analysis of samples 4.1Explicit and implicit references to US politicians 4.2Telecinematic and pop-cultural components in the PIM data 4.3Levels and types of constructed and quoted speech in PIMpops 5.Conclusion Acknowledgements References Index