Dark academia is an internet aesthetic and subculture centred on higher education, classic literature and the arts. Wikipedia calls it “a literary internet aesthetic and subculture concerned with higher education, the arts, and literature”; in practice it means tweed, candlelit libraries, Greek and Latin, and novels about students who take ideas too far.
Origin
- Literary roots. JSTOR Daily (Aida Amoako, 2022) traces the aesthetic to the campus novel, a genre that examines “overwork, toxic relationships, morally dubious professors.”
- Around 2014–2015, Tumblr. Wikipedia says the trend emerged on Tumblr around 2014 and 2015; CNN notes versions of the look on Tumblr and Pinterest in the mid-2010s.
- 2020, the pandemic and TikTok. CNN reported that “the trend resurged in popularity when the pandemic began” and that the hashtag “gained traction on TikTok at the end of 2020.” Refinery29 (Amal Abdi, October 2020) described it as “a dreamy digital substitute” for students whose education plans had been paused, and noted that the origins of dark academia “remain unclear.”
Fashion
According to Wikipedia, the wardrobe includes cardigans, blazers, dress shirts, plaid skirts and Oxford shoes, in a palette “consisting mainly of black, white, beige, browns, dark green, and occasionally navy blue.” CNN described “tweed blazers, scuffed loafers and schoolgirl-plaid skirts,” with followers “donning wooly sweaters over collared shirts and pulling up knee-high socks.” A softer, brighter offshoot is #LightAcademia.
Dark Academia Books, Films and TV
Works most often credited as dark academia touchstones, per Wikipedia unless noted:
| Title | Author | Year | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dead Poets Society | — | 1989 | Film |
| The Secret History | Donna Tartt | 1992 | Novel (credited as the trend’s inspiration) |
| Kill Your Darlings | — | 2013 | Film |
| If We Were Villains | M. L. Rio | 2017 (source) | Novel |
| Ninth House | Leigh Bardugo | October 2019 (source) | Novel |
| Babel, or the Necessity of Violence | R. F. Kuang | 2022 (source) | Novel |
| Wednesday | — | Premiered November 16, 2022 (source) | TV |
JSTOR Daily reads The Secret History as “a thinly-veiled satire of elite East Coast liberal arts education at Tartt’s alma mater, Bennington College.” Many of these titles also circulate on #BookTok.
Criticism
Wikipedia summarises criticism of “the aesthetic’s perceived Eurocentrism, lack of diversity, and glamorisation of unhealthy lifestyle choices,” and notes it “has also been criticised as elitist and as an ‘old money aesthetic’.” In CNN’s guide, UK YouTuber Rowan Ellis argued that “the elitism and emphasis on White authors and artists baked into dark academia can be limiting and harmful,” and CNN quoted Refinery29’s Amal Abdi: “The Western cannon of ‘classic literature’ is largely comprised of White authors writing about White protagonists.”
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_academia
- https://ktvz.com/entertainment/cnn-style/2022/01/29/a-guide-to-dark-academia-the-tiktok-popular-aesthetic-with-preppy-style-and-an-intellectual-focus/
- https://www.refinery29.com/en-ca/dark-academia-aesthetic-tiktok-trend
- https://daily.jstor.org/dark-academias-roots-lie-in-the-campus-novel
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/If_We_Were_Villains
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ninth_House
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babel,_or_the_Necessity_of_Violence
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wednesday_(TV_series)