Abstract

This thesis investigates what memes of the 2013 film The Great Gatsby do to F. Scott Fitzgerald's novel within the digital landscape. Meme images of The Great Gatsby began becoming popular on Tumblr.com. Typically they consist of often humorous text that incorporates an image from the 2013 movie in order to elevate the text into a communally shared in-joke. For example, the use of the "Jay Gatsby raising a glass" meme is commonly used on platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, and Tumblr even ten years after the fandom's creation. In the film, the imagery is used to introduce Jay Gatsby to Nick Carraway, however, through the use of memes the meaning warps to whatever the creator wishes. Often the meme is used to convey raising one's glass to a bad idea. This paper examines memes as "kitsch" and considers the negatives and positives of commodifying classic literature. This paper looks at memes through the lens of adaptation studies in order to find out how the "memefication" of classic lit affects its legacy.

Notes

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Graduation Date

2023

Semester

Summer

Advisor

Bishop, Louise Kane

Degree

Master of Arts (M.A.)

College

College of Arts and Humanities

Department

English

Degree Program

English; Literary, Cultural & Textual Studies

Identifier

CFE0009688; DP0027795

URL

https://purls.library.ucf.edu/go/DP0027795

Language

English

Release Date

August 2023

Length of Campus-only Access

None

Access Status

Masters Thesis (Open Access)

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