Copypasta: internet literature or manifestation of trolling? An attempt to definition of the genre

Abstract

Copypasta as a genre of an internet texts was born in the first decade of the 21st century in the societies of internet imageboards. Then it expanded the scope of its functioning to social news and social media portals. Due to the fact that copypasta is a heterogeneous genre in aspect of form and content, it’s still evolutioning and it’s located in the borderland of literature, rhetorical forms and other forms of communication, it hasn’t received a scientific operational definition yet. The author of the article, using the research tools of literary studies, rhetoric, netnography and cyber media studies, attempted to characterize copypaste as a separate genre of internet texts, with an emphasis on the determinants of its literariness and rhetoric, and its subordination to communication functions. Usage definitions emphasize two trends which copypasta has evolved into, taking the form of funny stories or simulating a provocative statement in an online discussion as an internet trolling manifestation. The results of the analyzes of texts representing, that the genre indicate its genre similarity to literary forms, e.g. a story, a tale, a blemish; colloquial speech genres, i.e. conversation, gossip and others, as well as rhetorical ones: speeches, appeals, etc. The overriding feature that binds all texts belonging to this genre is their functioning in the virtual web 2.0 space as a kind of verbal meme.