Can historical memes be both funny and factual?
Not all funny pictures on the internet about history are entirely correct, students from the master's programme in history noticed. They therefore built a website with additional explanations. “A meme contributes to your perception of a subject.”
“Stereotypical foods around the world,” reads the meme. The French cherish their baguettes, the Turks feast on kebabs and the British enjoy Indian chicken tikka masala. And the Netherlands eats its prime ministers? A train of thought, but the history fanatic chuckles behind his smartphone as soon as this internet picture passes by on social media.
The meme refers to the death of Johan de Witt, Grand Pensionary of the Dutch Republic from 1653 until the “Disaster Year” 1672. It seems that angry citizens lynched Johan and his brother Cornelis de Witt and ate their bodies. They blamed the brothers for the neglect of the Dutch land army.
“But that is more nuanced,” says master’s student in history Annick Gossen (22). Together with students Nienke Huijbens and Ravelle Veth, she tracked down memes that contribute to the portrayal of Dutch history, which sometimes only tell half the story. They provided them with context and built the website Consuming Dutch History Memes.
What exactly is a meme? They are funny pictures and images on the internet, often hiding a message. The great strength of a meme is the fact that it is meant to be reproduced. For instance, an image of a person with a certain facial expression can be given different text each time. Well-known memes consist, for example, of stills from the popular series The Office, the film Lord of the Rings, or the internet dog Cheems.
Internet culture as a resource
Gossen, herself a fan of history memes, initiated the project earlier this year with Laura van Hasselt, a lecturer in Dutch history at the UvA and an expert on public history. “My master’s is mainly focused on doing academic research, but I wanted to do something with public history. Laura could help with that,” Gossen says on the phone. “Internet culture, in which memes play an important role, is still hardly studied in that specialism, even though the internet is one of the primary sources from which young people get their information.” The meme is particularly popular: a picture that usually conveys information in a humorous way, but which sometimes comes at the expense of historical context, the group of students observed. “We were curious to find out which images of Dutch history were most prominent in memes and make people aware of them. Laura van Hasselt came up with the idea for a website,” said Gossen.
The meme described earlier refers to the murder of the De Witt brothers and falls short of information says Gossen. “Of course, you cannot expect an internet joke to have the level of detail of an encyclopaedia. But to understand the meme, some basic knowledge about the story of Johan de Witt is nice. Then you find out that it is a bit short-sighted to see this historical incident as indicative of Dutch culture, as baguettes are of French culture. And just to sit on the facts: the brothers were not completely eaten and no other Dutch politicians have since become dinner citizens,” laughs Gossen.
Besides the meme about Johan de Witt, the students have highlighted and provided context for several more memes on their website. “We combed half the internet to arrive at the selection,” says Gossen. “In the end, we made a selection on themes that are often used. Think of the Dutch colonial past, Dutch versus water, and the murder of the De Witt brothers. In the end, we worked out 12 memes.”
Awareness
Whether it is problematic that memes give a one-sided or incomplete picture of the Netherlands, Gossen does not dare to say. “On the one hand, of course it is good that people learn about Dutch history, and humour is a good way to make information stick. But it is important to always think critically about what you read anywhere. Either way, a meme like this adds a bit to your perception of a topic. Some, for instance, can also be used as propaganda. It is therefore important to keep yourself informed. With our website, we hope to contribute to that,” said Gossen.
