Critical Meme Reader III: Breaking the Meme

Edited by Chloë Arkenbout and İdil Galip 

When you want to say something about memes, it is impossible to escape having to situate them. What usually happens is that meme makers and thinkers fall back on two definitions: Dawkins (1976), Shifman (2014). How can memes be defined beyond their work in a way that is better suited to our current time? Building on this work – yes of course – but in a way that leaves space for the meme to breathe. Honoring its transgressive everchanging nature, instead of limiting it into a static framework it never chose to be in in the first place. For meme studies to truly theoretically evolve as a field, the meme needs many expanded definitions. The goal of Critical Meme Reader III is to break its definition open with different visions, and to keep it open –  letting the meme choose for itself what it wants to stay, be and become.

Contributors: Enzo Aït Kaci, Gabrielle K. Aguilar, Hugo Almeida & Adalberto Fernandes, Ruba Al-Sweel, Morgane Billuart, Will Boase, Victor Chagas, Ray Dolitsay & Jasmin Leech, Gustavo Gómez-Mejía & Rosana Ardila, Seong-Young Her, Alexis E. Hunter & Tiera Tanksley, Manuel Hunziker, Zas Iehulee, Alia Leonardi & Alina Lupu, Charlotte Marie, Tyler Patterson, Elena Pilipets & Marloes Geboers, Sophie Publig, Gabriele de Seta, @simulacra_and_stimultions, Ivana Emily Škoro & Marijn Bril, Socrates Stamatatos, Eero Talo, Aidan Walker, Phil Wilkinson and Liam Voice.

Editorial assistant: Kate Babin
Copy editor: Geoff Hondroudakis
Proofreader: Charlotte Marie
Design and EPUB development: Charlotte Marie & Tommaso Campagna
Printing and binding: GPS Internationale Handels Holding GMBH
Cover image: Bliss (image) + Photoshop AI Photo Editor
Image source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bliss_(image)

Published by the Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam 2024

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This publication is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial ShareAlike 4.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). To view a copy of this license, visit www.creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

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