IS MEME A GENRE? QUESTIONS ABOUT MEME´S GENERIC STATUS

ABSTRACT In recente years, it has been assumed academically that memes published on Facebook and other social networking sites (SRS) are textual/ discursive genres (cf. PASSOS, 2012; ; SILVA, 2016; GUERRA; BOTTA, 2018), thesis defended with different criteria and different genre theories. The objective of this paper is to discuss the generic status of memes on social networking sites. In order to achieve the purpose, I brought the studies of Bakhtin (2009; 2011) and , to discuss the concept of genre; and in Dawkins (2010), Blackmore (2000), Knobel and Lankshear (2005; 2007) and Cavalcante and Oliveira (2019), who discuss the nature of the meme. Methodologically, I analyze seven statements socially recognized as memes, which were published on Facebook in the last five years. The criteria for this were viralization and remixability, in its constitution. The results suggest that, under the label of meme, in fact, there are different genres, such as commercials and institucional ads, comic strips and serial comic strips, criticisms, reminders and motivational messages, which leads to question the generic status of what is recognized sociocognitively as meme.