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"You have to start romanticizing your life": A Textual Analysis of the Cottagecore Aesthetic's Representation of "the Good Life" in a Precarious World
Malmö University, Faculty of Culture and Society (KS), School of Arts and Communication (K3).
2022 (English)Independent thesis Advanced level (degree of Master (One Year)), 10 credits / 15 HE creditsStudent thesis
Abstract [en]

In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a global health crisis, the Cottagecore aesthetic gained popularity. This online aesthetic community is inspired by cottage living and draws inspiration from the pastoral – but is also concerned with social issues related to for example colonialism or capitalism. The thesis investigates how the aesthetic community represents “the good life” (Lauren Berlant, 2011; Sara Ahmed 2010), while simultaneously navigating flows of precarity in the contemporary Western neoliberal society and asks if its representation is conformist or subversive. The analysis is conducted by applying a multimodal textual analysis on content on TikTok, focusing on five different Cottagecore influencers and a total of nine videos. The textual analysis’ theoretical framework is within the field of theories on precarity and critical affect studies. It consists of Isabell Lorey’s (2015) “three dimensions of precarity”, Lauren Berlant’s (2011) theories on “cruel optimism”, “the good life” and “the impasse”, and Sara Ahmed’s (2010) theories on “the good life” and happiness. The analysis is structured around four different forms of attachments that are identified in the Cottagecore content: Attachments to being a Cottagecore influencer, Attachments to place, Attachments to clothing and Attachments to romanticization. The most prominent findings of the analysis are that the Cottagecore idea of “the good life” emphasises the dream of the cottage, which is an attachment to a future object – but also the romanticizing of life as an attachment to objects of the present. The study concludes that the romanticization of life can be interpreted as subversive, as it enables fully absorbing the present and its many possibilities, but the attachments also show complexities. Suggestions of further research are interviewing individuals from the community and to conduct research on intersections of the Cottagecore community. 

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2022. , p. 84
Keywords [en]
cottagecore, Online aesthetics, TikTok, The good life, Precarity, Multimodal textual analysis, Textual analysis, Multimodality
National Category
Media and Communications
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-54753OAI: oai:DiVA.org:mau-54753DiVA, id: diva2:1693458
Educational program
KS K3 Media and Communication Studies (master)
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Available from: 2022-09-12 Created: 2022-09-06 Last updated: 2022-09-12Bibliographically approved

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CiteExportLink to record
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Citation style
  • apa
  • ieee
  • modern-language-association-8th-edition
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Language
  • de-DE
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Output format
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