This project examines how the understanding of literature is changing in the digital age by analyzing memes as a possible new form of digital literature. My thesis is that memes function as a new form of digital literature because they replace linear narrative structures with collective, visual, and participatory meaning production.

The aim of the project is to explore the cultural and cognitive shift from print-based to digital media and to ask what still counts as “literature” in the digital context. I would also like to explore to what extent memes can be compared to books in terms of information transmission. While text is based on language, structure, and argumentation, memes work with images, emotions, and shared digital references.

As a creative project, I would like to create two pages that each deal with the same topic. The first page is more traditional, a standard book page. Instead of an informational text, the second page contains a collection of various memes that report on the same topic. By comparing two forms of presentation of the same topic, on the one hand as traditional text and on the other as a collection of memes, I want to show how the structure, form, and interactivity of digital media change the way meaning is created, communicated, and understood.

Furthermore, I want to show that the transition from print to digital media is not only a technical change, but also a cultural one. Young people today spend a large part of their time with digital content, especially memes, while books are becoming less important for many. Memes are therefore an integral part of our everyday culture and shape how young people think, communicate, and absorb information. Nevertheless, they have hardly been seriously studied in literary and media studies to date.