Abstract
This chapter situates Shakespeare memes as souvenirs and curios that circulate as online mementos of the experience of encountering Shakespeare in virtual places and spaces. Building on David Hume's claims of souvenir as architect of collective cultural narrative, this chapter postulates that fan tourism also accommodates visits to fictional settings. Fictional tourism defines the virtual excursions into a particular narrative, culture, or historical representation at a particular point in time when a reader experiences (or re-experiences) a text. Shakespeare fan online tourism transports the online sojourner in discovery of Shakespeare's life and work. Although often kitschy, online souvenirs mark these moments of discovery, of "being there," experiences that ignite the fan's recollection and imagination. This essay argues that while the meme may appear merely a kitschy souvenir, it marks a fan's connection to a cultural object and therefore offers a glimpse of Shakespeare's effect. Furthermore, the meme offers a brief respite - a holiday - from the seriousness with which Shakespeare is usually treated. A meme's success (both in terms of entertaining the consumer and viral reach) depends upon its immediate impact, and its ability to instantly immerse the reader in its delightful, speculative world of free association. Shakespeare kitsch, memes, and other assorted rubbishy virtual objects - flash in the pan as they may be - are evidence that a particular user, in a particular moment of time, in a particular cultural context, acted on the desire to comment on a particular cultural phenomenon through Shakespeare use.