PEPE’S POWER: INTERNET MEMES, CONSTITUTIVE RHETORIC, AND POLITICAL COMMUNITIES

Internet memes cannot be manufactured by any one individual. These artifacts are best defined as bodies of work that manufacture and distribute meaning online. Internet memes persuade politically-motivated individuals to join and stay together using common memetic logics. Using Limor Shifman’s definition of an internet meme, Ryan Milner’s framework of memetic logics, and Laurie Gries’ new materialist research strategies, this thesis will examine the memetic definition and rhetorical transformations of Pepe the Frog – an internet meme that has undergone radical symbolic growth since its inception in the late 2000s. These transformations successfully constituted ideologies in several digital political communities. In turn, these digital places generated images that were circulated by political actors in social networks, producing unpredictable rhetorical associations as they spread.

Grantor dc:publisher

Wake Forest University

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Riemensperger, Kory Alex

• 4chan

Language dc:language.iso

en

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/10339/90765

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:wakespace.lib.wfu.edu:10339/90765