A Transtextual Approach to Vietnamese Internet Meme Discourse

Abstract

This study examines a corpus of 175 Vietnamese internet memes collected from three popular fanpages between 2023 and 2025, with the aim of identifying the manifestations and meaning-making mechanisms of five forms of transtextuality: intertextuality, paratextuality, hypertextuality, metatextuality, and architextuality. Drawing upon Genette’s (1997) theory of transtextuality, in combination with Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (Fairclough, 2001; Kress & van Leeuwen, 2006 ;Machin & Mayr, 2012), the article proposes a three-tier analytical framework encompassing the semiotic, discursive, and socio-cultural dimensions. The findings reveal that these forms of transtextuality interweave to form a multilayered discourse ecosystem, through which memes simultaneously reflect, critique, and construct social values and generational identities.