Research Information System
in: International Research in the Field of Cinema, Prof. Dr. Burak Medin, Editor, Eğitim Yayınevi, Konya, pp.241-271, 2026
A new theoretical framework is increasingly required to adequately interpret the intensifying digital culture of the post-millennial period and the forms of cultural production emerging within the digital age. As cultural products appear to converge around a shared intellectual and emotional orientation that encompasses the reconfigured subject and new forms of content, an attempt at formulating a theory of digital culture has begun to take shape. This emergent cultural sensibility -identified as metamodernism represents
a structure of feeling that integrates the conflicting elements of modernism and postmodernism, drawing upon both while simultaneously indicating a cultural logic that transcends them. In the contemporary moment, characterized by increasingly complex emotional configurations, cultural artifacts themselves have become instruments that reflect this evolving structure. Within this context, the concept of metamodernism offers a particularly compelling explanatory framework, as it brings together the defining features of the digital age with the intellectual legacies of modernism, postmodernism, participatory culture, the figure of the prosumer, and contemporary modes of cultural production. Positioned between the principle-oriented orientation of modernism and the interrogative stance of postmodernism, metamodernism proposes a cultural logic that both oscillates between these two poles and situates itself simultaneously in relation to them. Consequently, metamodernism emerges in its conceptualization as a distinctive epistemic and aesthetic orientation positioned “between” modernism “and” postmodernism, yet “beyond” both.
Metamodernism has thus come to be understood as a framework capable of explaining the emotional landscape of the 21st century, the internet era, and, more broadly, the digital age (Vermeulen & Akker, 2010: 3). Importantly, metamodernism presents itself not merely as a form of artistic production but as a broader cultural sensibility and structure of feeling. Due to the epistemic breadth implied by this claim, defining the concept solely through artistic works produced under its rubric would be insufficient. Rather, metamodernism encompasses multiple dimensions, including the oscillation established between present realities and utopian projections of the future, its orientation toward the construction of possible futures, and its emphasis on the significance of the ordinary. For this reason, investigating the potential of metamodernism to function as a cultural theory of the digital age -or as a mode of thought characteristic of networked digital societies acquires particular importance for contemporary cultural analysis. The concept was formally articulated in 2010 by Timotheus Vermeulen and Robin van den Akker, who laid the theoretical groundwork for the paradigm (Vermeulen & Akker, 2010: 2-4). The subsequent publication of the Metamodernist Manifesto in 2011 (Turner, 2011) further clarified the aims and objectives of metamodern practice. Metamodernism merits scholarly investigation precisely because it attempts to diagnose the emerging cultural configuration of societies in an increasingly complex world. Within this framework, the primary objective of the present study has been to examine the historical, intellectual, and cultural foundations of metamodernism, an approach that presents itself as a potential cultural
theory of the digital age, and to determine the extent to which the film Barbie (2023) corresponds to the principles and methods proposed by metamodernism, as well as how these themes manifest both formally and narratively within the film.
In the research design, thematic analysis and descriptive analysis were employed simultaneously. Metamodern themes and methods were evaluated in relation to the formal and narrative characteristics of the audiovisual material and to the capacity of these features to render metamodernism visible. The scope of the study was structured around clearly defined analytical categories. Because the primary research problem required a detailed identification of the current condition of the phenomenon under investigation, thematic analysis was selected as the most appropriate methodological approach. Developed theoretically by Virginia Braun and Victoria Clarke, thematic analysis aims to identify patterns within data, analyze them, and structure them under thematic categories to provide a detailed explanation of their meanings. By tracing the meanings associated with social phenomena, the effects produced by those meanings, and their forms of representation (Braun & Clarke, 2006: 79-81), thematic analysis emerges as a theoretically suitable method for examining the cultural manifestations of metamodernism. The method not only enables the identification and exploration of themes derived from the data and the evaluation of relationships between them (Guest et al., 2012: 31) but also allows the researcher to interpret the cultural dynamics underlying texts and representations (Thomas, 2020: 149). Accordingly, thematic analysis functions as a particularly effective methodological instrument for a study that seeks to determine the extent to which a specific cultural theory finds expression within a selected audiovisual text.
The dataset used in the analysis was determined through purposive sampling. Given that the work under examination is a complete feature film with a duration of approximately 115 minutes, the film in its entirety was included in the analysis. Having generated widespread impact within the audiovisual sphere -particularly within contemporary cinema- Barbie (dir. Greta Gerwig, 2023) achieved a global box office revenue of 1.438 billion dollars, rapidly becoming the 14th most-watched film in cinematic history and evolving into a widely circulated “meme” figure within digital culture. For this reason, the film was positioned at the center of this study, which aims to identify emerging tendencies within digital cinema. The metamodern structure of feeling was traced throughout the film and examined through the method of thematic analysis. The findings demonstrate that metamodern methods are applied simultaneously through narrative structure, character construction, and cinematographic techniques, confirming that the film constitutes a representative example consistent with metamodern theory. The data obtained from the analysis were reported descriptively, and the results indicate that Barbie provides clear and direct
examples corresponding to each of the eleven methods proposed by metamodernism.