In a modern-day society, social media is arguably the most influential phenomenon that decides what is trendy and what is not, but for younger generations, TikTok is easily considered the most popular app with 1,925 billion users globally. TikTok allows for multiple interests to be shared with the use of hashtags such as ‘FashionTok’ and ‘CarTok’, but the academic sphere has also now adapted to be digital with the creation of ‘BookTok’ where people can share their interests in reading and recommendations.
On ‘BookTok’, classic literature is praised for its significance and how entertaining it can be to read. The hashtag ‘ClassicBooks’ has over 43.4 thousand posts. There’s no doubt that TikTok has made reading classics more accessible by breaking down the assumption around classic literature that it is intimidating and exclusive to academics. Now, many young readers are discovering the notorious works of Oscar Wilde and Sylvia Plath through TikTok recommendations and potentially entering a love for classic literature due to the platform’s inviting atmosphere, which is an incredibly refreshing perspective from prior elitist views that can surround literature.
However, TikTok’s fast-paced nature can be argued as encouraging a simplified and often misinformed narrative around complex works. For example, works such as Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë have been reduced to an oversimplified aesthetic of dramatising toxic and complicated romances with a brooding atmosphere rather than a literary commentary on class and obsession. Furthermore, this can become dangerous when people misinterpret and begin romanticising works such as the controversial classic ‘Lolita’ by Vladimir Nabokov and viewing it as something to be glorified and seen as the epitome of forbidden romance when, in fact, it was written as a critique of how youth at the time were commodified and exploited by predatory elders. When books are reduced to mood boards and aesthetics, their complexities are diminished and easily forgotten to fit better the aesthetic that modern-day audiences wish to depict them as.
On the other hand, generalising all TikTok accounts as misinformed is ultimately unfair and untrue, as dismissing its positive influence on classic literature entirely is short-sighted. If a viral TikTok convinces someone to purchase and read a copy of Jane Austen’s ‘Pride and Prejudice’ or Fyodor Dostoevesky’s ‘Crime and Punishment’ for the first time, does it truly matter how they got there? Many would argue no. Many revered classics at their original time of publication were incredibly popular or even scandalous in their society, but over time, as norms and values changed, attitudes shifted and eventually, many classics were accepted. Perhaps classic literature has always needed new generations to reinterpret them even if that means discovering them through algorithms and aesthetics.
Ultimately, TikTok is not rewriting the literature sphere. Instead, it is reshaping how we engage with it. Whether that represents revival or dilution depends not on the platform but on the reader and how they interpret the work. In conclusion, every reader’s journey begins somewhere, even if that place is a 30-second TikTok post and if that means that one more individual is reading a classic, then the art ofot dying, literature is n and society as a collective should encourage this.
By Shannon
Winchmore School Newsroom