Contagious memes, viral videos and subversive parody: The grammar of contention on the Indian web

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2015

Department

Communication

Abstract

This essay presents the viral culture of videos, memes, and websites deploying the tropes of parody and satire as a newly emerging discourse of social and cultural critique on the Indian web. It situates this cultural phenomenon at the intersection of a prior tradition of heterodoxy in India as well as the globally proliferating memetic culture. The essay argues that the speech is distinguished by a logic of repetition with difference both in its parodic/satiric text as well as through its medium that allows the text to repeat at new sites creating new meanings.

Publisher

SAGE Publications

ISSN

1748-0485

Link
COinS