The Rhetoric of Memes

Authors

  • Simone Sessolo University of Michigan

Keywords:

Upper-level

Abstract

“The Rhetoric of Memes” is an undergraduate upper-level course that examines what image-macro memes say and how they say it, analyzing them from the perspective of visual and argumentative rhetoric. Students write analyses that convey their own views of contemporary memes, create their own memes related to their discourse communities, and write wiki entries to summarize and become more familiar with key texts and issues in the field.

Author Biography

Simone Sessolo, University of Michigan

Lecturer IV, Assistant Director of Digital Rhetoric Collaborative, Sweetland Center for Writing, the University of Michigan

References

Bakhtin, Mikhail. “Discourse in the Novel” and “Rabelais and His World.” Ed. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Literary Theory: An Anthology. Malden: Blackwell, 1998. 32-51. Print.

Gleick, James. “What Defines a Meme?” Smithsonian.com. The Smithsonian Institution, May 2011. Web. 21 Oct. 2013

Zappavigna, Michele. “Internet Memes.” Discourse of Twitter and Social Media. New York: Continuum, 2012. 100-26. Print.

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Published

2016-06-28

Issue

Section

Syllabi