FLOATING FABULOUSNESS – REPRESENTATION, PERFORMATIVITY AND IDENTITY IN MUSICAL RINGTONES

Text topic: Narratology

Text author: Изабела ван Елферен и Имар де Врис

In this paper, we consider musical ringtones of mobile phones to act as virtual, communicative and cultural performances. They appear unpredictably, they communicate signs which are interpreted by a variegated and dynamic audience, and establish stages upon which cultural meanings are portrayed. We will argue that the musical ringtone functions as a musical madeleine in Marcel Proust’s sense, an involuntary mnemonic trigger of a complex web of individual and collective memories. Having this quality, the ringtone lends itself perfectly to the performative manifestation and display of (sub)cultural identities in the public sphere.