When viewing the “Advice Animals” as the artifact
for a rhetorical criticism, I believe the Generic Criticism will serve as the
most appropriate avenue, specifically the Generic Description analysis. Since I
am analyzing a set of memes, I believe there is a strong importance in
identifying the rhetorical genre of them, and “formulating theoretical
constructs about its characteristics” as Foss describes it.
The preconceived framework of these memes is shown
as animals that are giving their advice, insight, or preferences on particular
situations or subjects. With each animal, there is a different situation or
context. For example, my initial meme from this set, Foul Bachelor Frog,
describes what he would do under his living conditions through the discourse.
There is a set of common elements within these memes to be identified. While no
particular set of memes within this family is exactly alike to one another,
they all hold commonalities.
The benefit of using the internet as a platform to
collect memes to use as artifacts for this criticism is that they are
plentiful, and vary under a wide range. The creator of each meme is unknown,
but that information is irrelevant to this from of criticism. When viewing
these artifacts online, it is seen as the animal itself providing the
information, not the creator.
Generic Description analysis can serve as a
criticism that will allow me to identify the style and delivery of these
artifacts, and uncover which elements make them as important as they are. For
example, if the animal itself were to be different, or the color wheel behind
them, would it impact the significance of the message?
When providing a critical analysis using this
method, the characteristics need to provide insight about a type of rhetoric. I
believe that the set of artifacts I have selected can prove conclusive to an insight
about a type of rhetoric. Internet meme creation has become popular as a form
of rhetoric on the web, and I believe this analysis can help explain as to why
this is.
When viewing memes from this particular category, it
appears that with further uncovering, it is more that plausible that they share
common substantive and stylistic strategies. I also believe that it is almost
certain they hold a classification scheme. For these reasons, I find that
Generic Description Analysis would be most appropriate as my first choice.
My second choice of criticism would be Fantasy-theme
analysis when looking at the “Advice animal” memes. The leading rationale
behind this decision is the interesting dynamic in which so many of these memes
are created. Anonymous users create these artifacts, and through them they
share fantasy themes. While Foul Bachelor Frog, for example, is nothing more
than a picture of a frog, the discourse contained within numerous images holds
a common meaning or idea.
Undoubtedly, internet memes have amassed a
significant amount of popularity amongst internet users, and thus, they become
well-fit criteria for Fantasy-theme analysis. However, I find that my first
choice can cover more substantial information as to why these memes resonate
with their audience in the way that they do.
