This thesis examines readership communities on the social media application TikTok, and more specifically videos published under the hashtag SpicyBooks, where users discuss the literary genre of romance. Together with the closely related #BookTok, #SpicyBooks has had a profound impact on the book market. Correspondingly, the formation of readership communities on the app should be of interest to anyone who wishes to understand the changes of and within literacy among young adults. This study examines the top 130 featured videos under #SpicyBooks, which are thematically divided into categories analysed in three separate chapters. Taking its cue from affect theory, the thesis examines how the affect of shame is produced, represented and mediated in the videos. Furthermore, the study maps the various reader positions conjured by shame, and surveys how the video creators present themselves in the prevailing ideas and norms of aesthetic taste and social gender that circumscribes the literature discussed in the videos. By focusing on how the social media users and readers represent themselves, rather than how libraries and librarians can make themselves visible on social media, the study proposes a methodological shift, which might begin bridging the generational gap between libraries and their potential users.
Here's a version of the abstract in English: