MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

The “selfie” as a modern genre has been occasionally appreciated, but much more often maligned. The word alone, a diminutive of its nobler root, “self,” has a cloying, childish ring to it, especially compared with the heavy dignity of “self portraiture.” To many who have studied it, the selfie indicates narcissism, low self-esteem and at extremes even psychopathy (Fox & Rooney, 2015), while on the other hand many of my freshman level composition students have insisted that it serves to boost low self-esteem. The selfie seems to exist in a kind of “contact zone” (Bizzell, 1994) of varying assessments that recall old cultural divisions of “high” and “low,” “popular” and “elite.” As a “popular” form it has been dismantled repeatedly as highly conventional, formulaic, juvenile, narcissistic (etc.) while as an “elite” form it has been embraced as art. Given the enormous ongoing popularity of selfies in our culture today—and the creative energy pouring into their construction—-I would like to question whether we have struggled enough to understand these and other important contradictions. In considering the selfie as “art, rhetoric and propaganda” I hope to reveal its complexity as a textual artifact with multiple contexts and powerful effects and not just negative psychological causes. I am hoping to lead my listeners and participants deeper into the heart of the selfie as a genre, passing through questions of individual psychology—-whether that be unhealthy narcissism or healthy self-love—-to go further into its diverse social contexts, its multiple rhetorical situations and its many social functions. As we explore the many ways selfies rhetorically construct the self, I hope we will emerge with a more nuanced understanding of its complex role and enduring appeal in our everyday culture.