A Socio-pragmatic Analysis of “Versailles Literature” from the Perspective of Dramaturgical Theory and Memetics
- DOI
- 10.2991/978-2-494069-45-9_76How to use a DOI?
- Keywords
- “Versailles Literature”; Dramaturgical theory; Memetics; Linguistic memes; Impression management
- Abstract
“Versailles Literature” is a popular online phenomenon on Chinese social networks that is in essence a type of humblebrag. The impression management techniques of “Versailles Literature” on Chinese social media are investigated in this study through a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 150 authentic blogs collected from Sina Weibo. It finds that Chinese “Versailles Literature” impression management techniques include idealization, mystification, dramaturgical idealization, backstage preposition, and taste performance, and these strategies all appear in combination. Moreover, from the perspective of dramaturgical and memetic theories, this study also discusses the generation and evolution of “Versailles Literature” as a strong linguistic meme and Chinese netizens’ motivations to deploy such a social practice by using hashtags #VersaillesLiterature, #VersaillesResearchandPractices, and #MasterofReverseVersaillesLiterature. The findings suggest that “Versailles Literature” is a type of powerful linguistic meme that belongs to the third type of memetic phenotype and has the properties of copying-fidelity and fecundity, making it simple to identify and duplicate. With this sarcastic “Versailles Style” trend, individuals are able to conduct value introspection and realize their value which is not equivalent to the commercial value, thus deconstructing the ideology of the commodification of self in this materialistic and commodified society.
- Copyright
- © 2023 The Author(s)
- Open Access
- Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.
Cite this article
TY - CONF AU - Jie Lin PY - 2022 DA - 2022/12/16 TI - A Socio-pragmatic Analysis of “Versailles Literature” from the Perspective of Dramaturgical Theory and Memetics BT - Proceedings of the 2022 2nd International Conference on Modern Educational Technology and Social Sciences (ICMETSS 2022) PB - Atlantis Press SP - 624 EP - 633 SN - 2352-5398 UR - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-2-494069-45-9_76 DO - 10.2991/978-2-494069-45-9_76 ID - Lin2022 ER -