Dark academia is an internet aesthetic [1] and subculture [2] concerned with higher education, the arts, and literature, or an idealised version thereof. The aesthetic centres on traditional educational clothing, interior design, activities such as writing and poetry, ancient art, and classic literature, as well as classical Greek and Collegiate Gothic architecture. [3] The trend emerged on social media site Tumblr in 2015, before being popularised by adolescents and young adults in the late 2010s and early 2020s, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. [4]
The fashion of the 1930s and 1940s features prominently in the dark academia aesthetic, particularly clothing associated with attendance at Oxbridge, Ivy League schools, and prep schools of the period. A number of the articles of clothing most associated with the aesthetic are cardigans, blazers, dress shirts, plaid skirts, Oxford shoes, and clothing made of houndstooth and tweed, its colour palette consisting mainly of black, white, beige, browns, dark green, and occasionally navy blue. [2] [5]
The subculture draws on idealised aesthetics of higher education and academia, often with books and libraries featuring prominently. Activities such as calligraphy, museum visits, libraries, coffee shops, and all-night studying sessions are common among proponents. [3]
Seasonal imagery of autumn is also common. Imagery of Gothic and Collegiate Gothic architecture, candlelight, dark wooden furniture, and dense, cluttered rooms often occurs. [6] The subculture has been described as maximalist and nostalgic. [7] [8] Universities that are often featured in dark academia imageboards include University of Oxford, University of Cambridge, and Harvard University. [9]
The subculture has similarities with Goth subculture, tending to romanticize the finding of beauty and poetry in dark themes. [10] Tim Brinkhof of Big Think has stated that "moody architecture and philosophical pessimism" are key aspects of the aesthetic. [11] Hannah Southwick of USA Today has described it as a "melancholic aesthetic," citing a fashion stylist who described it as "boarding school meets goth enthusiast." [12]
The trend emerged on social media site Tumblr in 2015, as an aesthetic that captured the imaginations of a maturing " Harry Potter generation", [13] with various fandoms using the site to share dark, Gothic revival interior and architectural photos. The aesthetic then grew into a distinct subculture, seeing a wave of popularisation on Instagram led by Ryan Taylor and Maria Teresa Negro in 2017. [14]
Dark academia rose in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Increased interest in dark academia has been credited to the shutdown of schools. [2]
A number of classic works of literature, such as Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray and Maurice by E. M. Forster, as well as the works of writers such as Lord Byron and Percy Bysshe Shelley, have been cited as either influential or popular among the subculture or fitting within the subculture's aesthetics. [15]
Donna Tartt's novel The Secret History , published in 1992, which tells the story of a murder that takes place within a group of classics students at a New England liberal arts college, has been credited as being the inspiration for the trend. [16] Other more recent books, such as R. F. Kuang's novel Babel , J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series, If We Were Villains by M. L. Rio, Piranesi by Susanna Clarke, and Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo have also been included. [17] [18] [19] [20]
A number of films and TV series have also been credited as fitting into the aesthetic. The 1989 film Dead Poets Society [21] and the 2013 film Kill Your Darlings [22] have in particular been credited as among the sources of inspiration for dark academia. Writing for Screen Rant , Kayleena Pierce-Bohen has listed TV shows such as Ares , The Umbrella Academy , A Series of Unfortunate Events , The Queen’s Gambit and The Magicians as among works that fit within the aesthetics. [23] [22]
Curated playlists inspired by dark academia have been published by outlets such as VAN Magazine and Spotify. Such playlists focus on nineteenth and early-twentieth-century Western classical music, with a particular emphasis on Romantic and Impressionist composers. [24] [25]
Book Riot writer Zoe Robertson stated that the subculture draws on "seductive depictions of shadowy extravagance" and reminds her "to see the rot in the foundations of an institution I can't stay away from, and build my own school in defiance." [26] One writer compared it to the contemporary cottagecore lifestyle aesthetic, saying that while cottagecore requires a home in the country and leisure time for crafting, dark academia's "simple act of putting on a blazer and reading Dostoevsky is far more doable." [27]
Some commentators have attributed the rise in popularity of the subculture as a reaction to cuts to university funding and the corporatisation of higher education. [28] [29] [30] Honi Soit writer Ezara Norton stated that it "reveals a deep disillusionment with [education models that devalue knowledge unless it can be used to generate profit], and a longing for a space free to learn unencumbered by a neoliberal agenda." [31] Writing for Jacobin , Amelia Horgan argued that the trend was in part a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in students leaving campuses to learn in their family homes where many did not have access to adequate study space, providing "a fantasy of the university experience" which they were unable to obtain. However, she also noted that the world presented in the aesthetic was very different from that of the contemporary university, highlighting trends in UK academia as an example of the impacts of neoliberal policies on education, including long hours and casualisation for teaching staff and students having to work multiple part-time jobs to cover their costs. [32]
In part in reaction to the growth of the subculture, the related "light academia" subculture has experienced a rise in popularity, often featuring lighter and softer imagery and colours and more overt emphasis on optimism. [33] [34]
Dark academia has been criticized for a variety of reasons, including the aesthetic's perceived Eurocentrism, lack of diversity, and glamorisation of unhealthy lifestyle choices. [35] [36] [37] [38] [39] Critics of the aesthetic have argued that the English literary canon from which it draws inspiration is an overwhelmingly white one, with Tim Brinkof claiming that associated content creators "prefer to discuss Oscar Wilde and Emily Dickinson over Toni Morrison or James Baldwin". [40] [41] [42] [11] Sarah Burton, a sociology fellow at City, University of London, has noted that the aesthetic contains little representation of "most women, working class, people of colour, fatness, people with low economic or cultural capital, disability, caring and domestic activities and labour (especially the enjoyment of these), motherhood, queerness, and the mundanity of academic life". [43] In response to the aesthetic's lack of diversity, efforts have been made to incorporate literary works from Black authors such as Langston Hughes into dark academia. [44] [45]
The sub-culture has also been criticised as elitist and as an "old money aesthetic". [46] Drawing on the threefold typology of educational traditions outlined by Raymond Williams in his book The Long Revolution , Amelia Horgan has described dark academia as being rooted in the attitudes of "old humanists committed to preserving and sustaining a traditional and hierarchical culture while preserving the legacy of humanistic study." [32] Amy Crawford of the University of Dundee has stated that the sub-culture "tends to romanticise European upper-class education." [47] Kevin N. Dalby of the University of Texas at Austin has stated that "its association with higher learning and Ivy League schools, in particular, creates elitism that does not enable just anyone to be a part of the group." [48] Conversely, other commentators have noted that fashion items associated with the trend are easily and cheaply sourced from thrift stores. [49]
Others have argued that the aesthetic places too much emphasis on the aesthetic of art and higher education instead of proper study and analysis of these works, leading to misinterpretations of the source material. [50] [51] It has also faced criticism for potentially glamourising unhealthy behaviours, such as sleep deprivation, overworking, and substance misuse. [52] [53] [54] [55]
Goth is a music-based subculture that began in the United Kingdom during the early 1980s. It was developed by fans of gothic rock, an offshoot of the post-punk music genre. Post-punk artists who presaged the gothic rock genre and helped develop and shape the subculture include Siouxsie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, the Cure, and Joy Division.
The scene subculture is a youth subculture that emerged during the early 2000s in the United States from the pre-existing emo subculture. The subculture became popular with adolescents from the mid 2000s to the early 2010s. Members of the scene subculture are referred to as scene kids, trendies, or scenesters. Scene fashion consists of skinny jeans, bright-colored clothing, a signature hairstyle consisting of straight, flat hair with long fringes covering the forehead, and bright-colored hair dye. Music genres associated with the scene subculture include metalcore, crunkcore, deathcore, electronic music, and pop punk.
Soft grunge was a fashion trend that originated on Tumblr around the late 2000s and early 2010s. Beginning as an outgrowth of the 2000s indie sleaze fashion trend but with a greater influence from the 1990s, particularly grunge fashion, the style began as a reaction against the glamor fitness culture which was dominant in popular culture at the time. It is characterized by its merger of cute and aggressive fashion hallmarks like chokers, tennis skirts, leather jackets and boots, flower crowns, distressed denim and pastel colors. Soft grunge reached its peak popularity around 2014, by which time it had been embraced by high fashion designers including Hedi Slimane and Jeremy Scott and been worn by celebrities including Charli XCX. Its internet-based merger of subculture, fashion and music made it one of the earliest examples of an internet aesthetic. In the early 2020s, the style experienced a minor resurgence due to videos posted on the video sharing application TikTok.
TikTok, whose mainland Chinese counterpart is Douyin, is a short-form video hosting service owned by Chinese internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which can range in duration from three seconds to 60 minutes. It can be accessed with a smartphone app.
Jack Stauber is an American musician, animator, and internet personality based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is known for his VHS-aesthetic live-action, stop motion, and computer animated music videos, which have been featured in internet memes.
Charli Grace D'Amelio is an American social media personality. She was a competitive dancer for over a decade before starting her social media career in 2019, when she began posting dance videos on the video-sharing platform TikTok. She quickly amassed a large following and subsequently became the most-followed creator on the platform in March 2020 until she was surpassed by Khaby Lame in June 2022. With over 155 million followers, she is the second most-followed person on TikTok, as of 2024.
E-kids, split by binary gender as e-girls and e-boys, are a youth subculture of Gen Z that emerged in the late 2010s, notably popularized by the video-sharing application TikTok. It is an evolution of emo, scene and mall goth fashion combined with Japanese and Korean street fashion.
Cottagecore is an internet aesthetic idealising rural life. Originally based on a rural European life, it was developed throughout the 2010s and was first named cottagecore on Tumblr in 2018. The aesthetic centres on traditional rural clothing, interior design, and crafts such as drawing, baking, and pottery, and is related to similar aesthetic movements such as grandmacore, goblincore, gnomecore and fairycore.
Denarie Bautista Taylor, known professionally as Bella Poarch, is an American social media personality and singer. On August 17, 2020, she created the most liked video on TikTok, in which she lip syncs to the song "M to the B" by British rapper Millie B. She is the most followed TikTok contributor from the Philippines. In May 2021, she released her debut single "Build a Bitch".
Hyperpop is a loosely defined electronic music movement and microgenre that predominantly originated in the United Kingdom during the early 2010s. It is characterised by a maximalist or exaggerated take on popular music, and artists within the microgenre typically integrate pop and avant-garde sensibilities while drawing on elements commonly found in electronic, hip hop, and dance music.
The fashions of the 2020s represent a departure from 2010s fashion and feature a nostalgia for older aesthetics. They have been largely inspired by styles of the late 1990s to mid-2000s, 1980s, and late 1960s to early 1970s. Early in the decade, several publications noted the shortened trend and nostalgia cycle in 2020s fashion. Fashion was also shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic, which had a major impact on the fashion industry, and led to shifting retail and consumer trends.
Goblincore is an internet aesthetic and subculture inspired by the folklore of goblins, centered on the celebration of natural ecosystems usually considered less beautiful by conventional norms, such as soil, animals, and second-hand objects.
Indie sleaze was a fashion style popular in the United States and United Kingdom from approximately 2006 to 2012. Characterised by an affordable, messy and lethargic take on vintage fashion styles, especially the 1970s, the style was particularly popular amongst the hipster subculture and indie rock bands.
Array Collective is the alias of 11 Belfast-based artists and activists. In 2021 they became the first Northern Irish winners of the Turner Prize.
Soft girl or softie describes a youth subculture that emerged among Gen Z female teenagers around mid-to late-2019. Soft girl is a fashion style and a lifestyle, popular among some young women on social media, based on a deliberately cutesy, feminine look with a "girly girl" attitude. Being a soft girl also may involve a tender, sweet, and sensitive personality.
YouTube Shorts is the short-form section of the American online video-sharing platform YouTube. Shorts focuses on vertical videos that are less than 60 seconds of duration and various features for user interaction. As of May 2024, Shorts have collectively earned over 5 trillion views since the platform was made available to the public on July 13, 2021, which include video views that pre-date the YouTube Shorts feature. Creators earn money based on the amount of views they receive, or through ad revenue. The increased popularity of YouTube Shorts has led to concerns about addiction for teenagers.
An Internet aesthetic, also simply referred to as an aesthetic or microaesthetic, is a visual art style, sometimes accompanied by a fashion style, subculture, or music genre, that usually originates from the Internet or is popularized on it. Throughout the 2010s and 2020s, online aesthetics gained increasing popularity, specifically on social media platforms such as Tumblr, Pinterest, Instagram, and TikTok, and often were used by people to express their individuality and creativity. They can also be used to create a sense of community and belonging among people who share the same interests. The term aesthetic has been described as being "totally divorced from its academic origins", and is commonly used as an adjective.
Corecore is an Internet aesthetic and artistic movement aiming to capture post-2020 sensibilities. A product of youth culture in the 2020s, the corecore aesthetic can largely be found on TikTok, where it juxtaposes various video clips while emotional music plays.
Light academia is an internet aesthetic and subculture, that emphasizes visually light aesthetics and positive themes, including optimism, joy, and friendship. Accordingly, light academia is often considered to be the visually and emotionally lighter counterpart to dark academia. The term light academia was coined on Tumblr in 2019 and gained popularity during the early 2020s.
Coquette aesthetic is a 2020s fashion trend that is characterized by a mix of sweet, romantic, and sometimes playful elements and focuses on femininity through the use of clothes with lace, flounces, pastel colors, and bows, often draws inspiration from historical periods like the Victorian era and the 1950s, with a modern twist.
Dark Academia has been accused of being Eurocentric, seeing that the style is built around European universities with predominantly Western curricula. Go on TikTok, and you will find that most Dark Academia content creators prefer to discuss Oscar Wilde and Emily Dickinson over Toni Morrison or James Baldwin, even though the latter two authors were just as insightful as the former. Talking with magazines, more than one social media influencer said they received DMs from others asking if they would fit into the subculture if they weren't white or wealthy.
The subculture of dark academia has faced criticism for inherently promoting Western colonial education and the supremacy of classical literature.
At first glance the aesthetic does seem like one that might attract a community of rich white people, those with old money or interested in high society, but the opposite is true, as 19-year-old TikTok user @etherealacademia points out. "Unlike some other aesthetics, dark academia fashion and decor is really affordable," the college student says, noting its accessibility. They often buy their books, antiques and clothes at thrift stores for cheap prices.