Keyword – meme

Glózer, Rita:

Litrerary Consumption in the Age of Mobile Media

As a part of the transformation of the literary public sphere in the era of social media, the discursive field of literary criticism is also changing in essential respects. This is happening because, despite the predictions that online amateur literary criticism would open up and widen these literary discourses, such activity only seems to have resulted in the popularisation and slight intellectual deterioration of the critical praxis so far. While online amateur critical discourses have multiplied and expanded, traditional print platforms such as journals of high literary criticism are on the decline. However, according to media-optimistic arguments, social media sites serving as discursive platforms can eliminate information and knowledge monopolies and grant access to elite or professional discourses to many. This paper, focusing on a specific social media site, attempts to investigate how these tendencies foster the evolution of simplistic, easy-to-absorb forms of literary consumption and the ‘re-folklorisation’ of literature. Practices and products of this trend seem to manifest themselves on a spectrum ranging from high cultural phenomena to popular memetic culture.

Keywords: Instagram, literary criticism, literature, meme, poem, poetry, public sphere, Rupi Kaur