“Russian Memes, on and off the Internet”
April 2 @ 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm PDT
Pomona College
his talk has two aims, one general, the other more local. Russian memes and viral video are among the country’s most visible cultural exports. Long a powerhouse in the world of high culture, Russia has been less successful in making its own mark on mass culture. Besides Pussy Riot and the girl band T.A.T.U, Russia as a producer of pop culture is nearly invisible on the world stage. The only truly great success story has been the animated series Masha and the Bear, a runaway hit on Netflix. But memes are another matter. The Internet cannot get enough of images and videos about perceived Russian excess: like it or not, drunken fights, squatting Slavs, and road rage are Russia’s virtual calling card. I will examine the ways in which Russia projects itself onto the global memetic stage.
The broader point has to do with the nature of Internet memes. Discussing Internet memes and viral video, or online culture in general, as an entirely self-contained sphere makes less and less sense as time goes on. Partitioning the Internet from the “real world” does justice to neither. It is not a binary proposition; even the “always online” are simultaneously offline. The Russian case offers a number of instructive examples of the circulation of memes both in the mediated and the “real” world.
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