Something be like : performativity in the post-ironic memes

Abstract

Many contemporary media objects are multimodal products, combining several channels of transferring information. One such example is post-ironic statements balancing on the verge of humor and truth. The thesis aims to study how such statements, together with a picture, are viewed as post-ironic and act as communication actors capable of constructing a representation of performative online identity. More specifically, the thesis considers for selection those statements that fulfill the content criterion of referring to subjectivity or a group of people and contain words such as "girls", "me", "women", followed by a description of the person’s action ("be like", "do") and an accompanying picture, which is not limited to selecting and might be a celebrity photo, art, or a movie shot. Multimodal Discourse Analysis as a method includes criteria such as semiotics, intertextuality, and contextuality, which are responsible for examining the selected images in accordance with the research questions and chapters. Objects are first examined for their post-ironic core with the criteria of semiotics in the first chapter. Their intertextual nature is analyzed in the next chapter dedicated to identifying tools that assist in recognizing memes and their interconnections. The last chapter deals with the objects’ ability to help construct an online identity and express oneself, considering the influence of such contextual concepts as multivoiced information dissemination, fake news, authenticity and femininity.