Memes and Tropes

The use of the terms "meme" and "trope" are widespread nowadays and I often have difficulty actually explaining to myself what these two terms mean. I thought I'd use this post to clarify my thinking in regards to these two terms. Let's start with a meme.

Here is the Oxford Dictionary definition of the term:

1. an element of a culture or system of behaviour passed from one individual to another by imitation or other non-genetic means.
2. an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by Internet users, often with slight variations.

In 1 we see the earlier pre-Internet use of the term and in 2 we see the more Internet-based use of the term. Silly old Richard Dawkins, in his 1976 book "The Selfish Gene", was the first to introduce the term. In the video below, he speaks to an interviewer on the 28th of June 2013 about the history of the term:

Here is a lifewire take by Paul Gil on what memes are (dated January 2020):

A meme is a virally-transmitted photograph that is embellished with text that pokes fun at a cultural symbol or social idea. The majority of modern memes are captioned photos that are intended to be funny, often as a way to publicly ridicule human behaviour. Other memes can be videos and verbal expressions. Some memes have heavier and more philosophical content. The world of memes (which rhymes with 'teams') is noteworthy for two reasons: it is a worldwide social phenomenon, and memes behave like a mass of infectious flu and cold viruses, traveling from person to person quickly through social media.

Figure 1 shows an example that tickled my fancy, taken from the lifewire site:

Figure 1

Reducing a meme to a virally-transmitted photograph with added text does not do the concept justice of course and most of these sorts of memes are pretty lame. Just yesterday I came across another example of a meme on CNN Entertainment:

That 'LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, Tinder' meme was started by none other than Dolly Parton

Dolly Parton didn't need to add "social media prowess" to her laundry list of talents. She's been gifting the public timeless zingers and Instagram-worthy photos before the app even existed. And yet, the petite monarch of country music has dipped her manicured toes into a very 21st-century accomplishment: Inventing a successful meme. Ok, boomer! It appears Ms. Parton was the very first to take part in what some have dubbed the "social challenge," a four-photo mosaic of potential profile photos for social media sites LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and Tinder. See Figure 1.

Figure 1

She posted this on January 21st 2020 and to quote from the article again:

Celebrities like Jennifer Garner, Naomi Campbell and Mark Ruffalo plus thousands of non-famous folks quickly latched onto the idea and posted their own versions. Theirs were cute and winking, too, and mainly functioned as an excuse to post four flattering photos at once.

So this is what separates a meme from, let's say, a video that goes viral like. A meme is characterised by "behaviour passed from one individual to another by imitation" and in the age of the Internet this means "an image, video, piece of text, etc., typically humorous in nature, that is copied and spread rapidly by Internet users, often with slight variations." A viral video just gets watched a lot, it doesn't necessarily get imitated.

Let's move on to tropes. What exactly is a trope? It would be hard to do better than to reproduce the content on this site that deals with examples of tropes:

The word "trope" may sound fancy and literary, but you know several of them already. In the arts, a trope is simply a common convention in a particular medium. It refers to anything that gets used often enough to be recognised. 

When you see a kid running around with a cape and know they're pretending to be a superhero, you've recognised the trope that superheroes wear capes. That's all a trope is: a commonplace, recognisable plot element, theme or visual cue that conveys something in the arts. Every genre has distinct tropes of its own, and we will explore several examples of tropes below. 

Cinematic Examples of Tropes 

Constrained by their limited runtime, movies often rely heavily on tropes to convey maximum information to the viewer in the shortest possible time. Here are a few you may spot in a theatre near you. 

Bad Guys Wear Black: There's no reason villains have to dress in black. But if a character is intended to be either cool, evil, or cool and evil, they're exponentially more likely to have monochrome wardrobes. Take a look at the classic Disney villains: Maleficent, Jafar, Ursula, Cruella de Vil all dress in black. Even Scar has a black mane! 

Comic Relief: In movies intended to be lighthearted, especially in genres like action that have the potential to become overly harsh and violent, a common trope is including a funny sidekick to lighten the tone. Actors like Michael Pena and Kevin Hart have built whole careers on this trope. 

Reluctant Hero: When you see a famous actor living a quiet, comfortable life and then bad guys kill his dog or kidnap his friend or drag him into one last heist, you're watching the trope of the reluctant hero. Reluctant heroes can be tragic, like Bruce Banner forced to turn into the Hulk, or exciting, like John Wick. 

Comic Book Tropes 

Comic books draw on the tropes of two worlds: literature and visual art. Meshing the two forms creates fresh tropes unique to the comic book genre. 

Assemble!: In the real world, people with radically different value systems tend to avoid each other. It's human nature to connect more easily with people who share a lot in common. But superhero comics and movies present teams of people with different ideas and priorities in order to create the conflict that drives the story forward, as is the case with Marvel's Avengers or DC's Suicide Squad. That's a trope. 

Capes: As The Incredibles memorably reminded us, wrapping a long, dangling garment around your neck, then going into a dangerous situation, is a really bad idea. But ever since the debut of Superman and Batman in the 1930s, if not before, the cape has been the signature superhero garment. 

Teenage Sidekicks: Speaking of strange things to bring to a fight, why would anyone ever endanger a child they're responsible for by exposing them to criminals and supervillains? But it's a powerful trope designed to engage younger readers in the action. Robin in Batman, Speedy in Arrow and Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass are all examples of this trope. 

Literary Tropes 

Literature could almost be called the origin of tropes. Writing stories down and circulating them made it possible to identify and employ literary structures that seemed successful. Here is a small sample of the near-infinite number of literary tropes. 

Lady Chatterley's Lover: In many works of romance literature, especially those set earlier in history, the romantic pair is separated by social class. She's an aristocrat; he's a gamekeeper. He's a professor; she sells flowers in the street. This not only adds a bit of taboo titillation, it provides valuable conflict to motivate the plot. Many of Jane Austen's novels, notably Sense and Sensibility, are driven by romances that cross the class barriers of 19th century Britain. F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby employed the same trope in New York during the Roaring Twenties, and Kevin Kwan's Crazy Rich Asians illustrates the same theme in modern Singapore. 

Teens Are Forever: In young adult fiction, relationships established when characters are young frequently continue more or less unchanged into adulthood. Characters may marry and have children with the same person they gave their first Valentine to in grade school, or pine forever after the object of their first crush. Severus Snape from the Harry Potter series is a classic example of this trope, motivated by his teenage crush on Lily Potter well into middle age. 

Size Means Power: In literary genres that emphasise physical conflict, a writer will often linger over the sheer physical size of a character. Doing so emphasises not only their potential strength, but by extension their capacity for violence. This is another powerfully enduring trope, ranging from the Biblical story of David and Goliath to the Mountain from George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire. 

Tropes Are Not Evil 

To call something a trope is not to call it a cliche. A cliche is a trope that has been used poorly. Tropes, by contrast, are a vital part of the artistic and narrative process. They define how we communicate.

Of course a great deal has been written on literary tropes. Here is a list taken from Wikipedia that references most of them, the majority of which are quite obscure. 

• accismus: expressing the want of something by denying it^[16]
• allegory: A metaphoric narrative in which the literal elements indirectly reveal a parallel story of symbolic or abstract significance.^[17][18][19]
• allusion: Covert reference to another work of literature or art
• ambiguity: Phrasing which can have two meanings
• anacoenosis: Posing a question to an audience, often with the implication that it shares a common interest with the speaker
• analogy: A comparison
• anapodoton: Leaving a common known saying unfinished
• antanaclasis: A form of pun in which a word is repeated in two different senses.^[20]
• anthimeria: A substitution of one part of speech for another, such as noun for a verb and vice versa.^[21]
• anthropomorphism: Ascribing human characteristics to something that is not human, such as an animal or a god (see zoomorphism)
• antimetabole: Repetition of words in successive clauses, but in switched order
• antiphrasis: A name or a phrase used ironically.
• antistasis: Repetition of a word in a different sense.
• antonomasia: Substitution of a proper name for a phrase or vice versa
• aphorism: Briefly phrased, easily memorable statement of a truth or opinion, an adage
• apologia: Justifying one's actions
• aporia: Faked or sincere puzzled questioning
• apophasis: (Invoking) an idea by denying its (invocation)
• appositive: Insertion of a parenthetical entry
• apostrophe: Directing the attention away from the audience to an absent third party, often in the form of a personified abstraction or inanimate object.
• archaism: Use of an obsolete, archaic word (a word used in olden language, e.g. Shakespeare's language)
• auxesis: Form of hyperbole, in which a more important-sounding word is used in place of a more descriptive term
• bathos: Pompous speech with a ludicrously mundane worded anti-climax
• burlesque metaphor: An amusing, overstated or grotesque comparison or example.
• catachresis: Blatant misuse of words or phrases.
• cataphora: Repetition of a cohesive device at the end
• categoria: Candidly revealing an opponent's weakness
• cliché: Overused phrase or theme
• circumlocution: Talking around a topic by substituting or adding words, as in euphemism or periphrasis
• congeries: Accumulation of synonymous or different words or phrases together forming a single message
• correctio: Linguistic device used for correcting one's mistakes, a form of which is epanorthosis
• dehortatio: discouraging advice given with seeming sagacity
• denominatio: Another word for metonymy
• diatyposis: The act of giving counsel
• double negative: Grammar construction that can be used as an expression and it is the repetition of negative words
• dirimens copulatio: Balances one statement with a contrary, qualifying statement^[22]
• distinctio: Defining or specifying the meaning of a word or phrase you use
• dysphemism: Substitution of a harsher, more offensive, or more disagreeable term for another. Opposite of euphemism
• dubitatio: Expressing doubt over one's ability to hold speeches, or doubt over other ability
• ekphrasis: Lively describing something you see, often a painting
• epanorthosis: Immediate and emphatic self-correction, often following a slip of the tongue
• encomium: A speech consisting of praise; a eulogy
• enumeratio: A sort of amplification and accumulation in which specific aspects are added up to make a point
• epicrisis: Mentioning a saying and then commenting on it
• epiplexis: Rhetorical question displaying disapproval or debunks
• epitrope: Initially pretending to agree with an opposing debater or invite one to do something
• erotema: Synonym for rhetorical question
• erotesis: Rhetorical question asked in confident expectation of a negative answer
• euphemism: Substitution of a less offensive or more agreeable term for another
• grandiloquence: Pompous speech
• exclamation: A loud calling or crying out
• humour: Provoking laughter and providing amusement
• hyperbaton: Words that naturally belong together separated from each other for emphasis or effect
• hyperbole: Use of exaggerated terms for emphasis
• hypocatastasis: An implication or declaration of resemblance that does not directly name both terms
• hypophora: Answering one's own rhetorical question at length
• hysteron proteron: Reversal of anticipated order of events; a form of hyperbaton
• innuendo: Having a hidden meaning in a sentence that makes sense whether it is detected or not
• inversion: A reversal of normal word order, especially the placement of a verb ahead of the subject (subject-verb inversion).
• irony: Use of word in a way that conveys a meaning opposite to its usual meaning.^[23]
• litotes: Emphasizing the magnitude of a statement by denying its opposite
• malapropism: Using a word through confusion with a word that sounds similar
• meiosis: Use of understatement, usually to diminish the importance of something
• memento verbum: Word at the top of the tongue, recordabantur
• merism: Referring to a whole by enumerating some of its parts
• metalepsis: Figurative speech is used in a new context
• metaphor: An implied comparison between two things, attributing the properties of one thing to another that it does not literally possess.^[24]
• metonymy: A thing or concept is called not by its own name but rather by the name of something associated in meaning with that thing or concept
• neologism: The use of a word or term that has recently been created, or has been in use for a short time. Opposite of archaism
• non sequitur: Statement that bears no relationship to the context preceding
• occupatio see apophasis: Mentioning something by reportedly not mentioning it
• onomatopoeia: Words that sound like their meaning
• oxymoron: Using two terms together, that normally contradict each other
• par'hyponoian: Replacing in a phrase or text a second part, that would have been logically expected.
• parable: Extended metaphor told as an anecdote to illustrate or teach a moral lesson
• paradiastole: Extenuating a vice in order to flatter or soothe
• paradox: Use of apparently contradictory ideas to point out some underlying truth
• paraprosdokian: Phrase in which the latter part causes a rethinking or reframing of the beginning
• paralipsis: Drawing attention to something while pretending to pass it over
• parody: Humouristic imitation
• paronomasia: Pun, in which similar-sounding words but words having a different meaning are used
• pathetic fallacy: Ascribing human conduct and feelings to nature
• periphrasis: A synonym for circumlocution
• personification/prosopopoeia/anthropomorphism: Attributing or applying human qualities to inanimate objects, animals, or natural phenomena
• pleonasm: The use of more words than is necessary for clear expression
• praeteritio: Another word for paralipsis
• procatalepsis: Refuting anticipated objections as part of the main argument
• proslepsis: Extreme form of paralipsis in which the speaker provides great detail while feigning to pass over a topic
• prothesis: Adding a syllable to the beginning of a word
• proverb: Succinct or pithy, often metaphorical, expression of wisdom commonly believed to be true
• pun: Play on words that will have two meanings
• rhetorical question: Asking a question as a way of asserting something. Asking a question which already has the answer hidden in it. Or asking a question not for the sake of getting an answer but for asserting something (or as in a poem for creating a poetic effect)
• satire: Humoristic criticism of society
• sensory detail imagery: sight, sound, taste, touch, smell
• sesquipedalianism: use of long and obscure words
• simile: Comparison between two things using like or as
• snowclone: Alteration of cliché or phrasal template
• style: how information is presented
• superlative: Saying that something is the best of something or has the most of some quality, e.g. the ugliest, the most precious etc.
• syllepsis: The use of a word in its figurative and literal sense at the same time or a single word used in relation to two other parts of a sentence although the word grammatically or logically applies to only one
• syncatabasis (condescension, accommodation): adaptation of style to the level of the audience
• synchoresis: A concession made for the purpose of retorting with greater force.
• synecdoche: Form of metonymy, referring to a part by its whole, or a whole by its part
• synesthesia: Description of one kind of sense impression by using words that normally describe another.
• tautology: Superfluous repetition of the same sense in different words Example: The children gathered in a round circle
• transferred epithet: A synonym for hypallage.
• truism: a self-evident statement
• tricolon diminuens: Combination of three elements, each decreasing in size
• tricolon crescens: Combination of three elements, each increasing in size
• verbal paradox: Paradox specified to language
• verba ex ore: Taking the words out of someone’s mouth, speaking of what the interlocutor wanted to say.^[25]
• verbum volitans: A word that floats in the air, on which everyone is thinking and is just about to be imposed.^[26]
• zeugma: Use of a single verb to describe two or more actions
• zoomorphism: Applying animal characteristics to humans or gods