Flattening - The flow of ideas and representations cannot be accounted for by descriptions of 'high' versus 'low' culture.
Knowingness - Irony and cynicism are the most 'authentic' forms of expression. Self-conscious, self-contradictory and self-undermining statements convey a sense of our place in the world.
Referencing - Allusion, quotation and homage may be nostalgic, critical or playful, or all of these at once.
Surface Play - Images are vivid but shallow, and meaning is in crisis. There are no truths, only interpretations. 'Meanings' occur between audiences and signs; they do not emerge directly from authors or 'reality'.
Mixing And Matching - Eclecticism (bringing material together from disparate sources) and appropriation (taking materials from one place and reworking them in another) challenge ideas of originality. New combinations of genres, styles and media are prevalent and reflect eclectic lifestyles.
Identify As Image - The 'self' is replaced by 'identify', and identity is a collage of cultural scraps. It can be cyborg-like, fluid, nomadic, hybrid and performed.
Fragmentation - Forget the search for commonality between different cultures, bodies of knowledge and beliefs - these are only 'language games' anyway. Total theories are to be abandoned. It is perhaps for this reason that theories of postmodernism are so contradictory.
Postmodernism Research
Key Assertions of Postmodernism:
Postmodernism Research
Key Words
Meta-narratives
Bricolage
Parody
Pastiche
Intertextuality
Hyperreality
Key Theorists
Jean-Francois Lyotard
Jean Baudrillard
John Storey
Roland Barthes
Julian McDougall
Dick Hebdige
What is Postmodernism?
Key Assertions of Postmodernism:
- No idea, theory, text or part of culture are more important than another.
- Judgements of value merely about taste not about quality or substance.
- Anything can be 'art' (this comes from the history of postmodernism, it started in the world of art).
- There is no longer a distinction between high culture and popular culture - they are both of value.
- There are no universal truths - meta-narratives or 'big stories' such as Christianity or Marxism are not universal truths - they are truths to some.
Key Features of Postmodern Texts:
- Bricolage
- Parody
- Pastiche
- Intertextuality
- Merging of Genre Styles and Conventions
- Style Over Substance
- Another big part of Postmodernism is the belief that the "construction of cultural identities is an active process of bricolage, of tinkering with the debris."
- Bricolage = A construction made of whatever materials are at hand; something created from a variety of available things.
- Examples of bricolage:
- Pop songs sampling riffs and licks from the 'classics' or 'serious' music - Marvin Gaye vs Blurred Lines
- TV shows that are set in the recent past such as Mad Men or Life on Mars - these bring back nostalgia
- Use of icons of visual arts in advertising such as Mona Lisa
Parody
- A humorous and exaggerated imitation of the style or works of a writer, artist, director, genre, etc.
- Often parodies are used to expose some part of the original text or works that the creator didn't like
- A parody can be considered as a humorous imitation of something
- Examples of parody:
- Austin Powers - parody of traditional spy genre
- Scary Movie - parody of traditional horror genre
Pastiche
- Pastiche is a respectful imitation of the style or works of a writer, artist, director, genre, etc.
- The key difference with parodies is that a pastiche in done in reverence and respect for the original.
- Pastiche can be considered as a homage of something; an honour and respect referencing someone's work
- Examples of pastiche:
- Most of Quentin Tarantino's films are considered pastiche because they use the conventions and styles of other genre's such as old kun-fu movies (Kill Bill) and old Western movies (Django Unchained).
- Simpsons - certain episodes of the Simpsons might also be considered pastiche - in the past they have 'copied' famous scenes from films such as Psycho, A Clockwork Orange and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Intertextuality
- Intertextuality is where a text refers to, references or alludes to another text or itself
- The key to intertextuality is that it should draw attention to the 'constructedness' of the text and reminding the audience that they are suspending their disbelief to watch a media text.
- Examples of intertextuality:
- Scream - particularly the first film and the scene where the characters are discussing the traditional conventions of horror genre.
- Simpsons - the episode with President Bush Sr. & Jr.
- Parody and pastiche can both be considered as making a text intertextual
Merging of styles or genres
- The merging of styles or genres is where one text uses the typical conventions of a number of genres, which can make it difficult for the audience to pin down which genre the text is - this would make it postmodern.
- Examples of merging genre styles & conventions:
- Misfits - it includes elements / conventions of the following genres - comedy, drama, superhero, sci-fi.
Style over substance
- Another belief of Postmodernism is that media texts don't need to have deep hidden meanings, they can simply be what they are - media texts that look good and entertain.
- Semiotics is the study of signs and symbols and their use or interpretation.
- Ferdinand de Saussure offered a 'dyadic' or two-part model of the sign. He defined a sign as being composed of: a 'signifier' - the form which the sign takes; and the 'signified' - the concept it represents.
- Postmodernists believe that there is now a sign but no signifier nor signified.
- This links into the idea that there is no 'original text' anymore. Theorist Roland Barthes argued for the "death of the author" and the "birth of the reader" and as such there is no "original text" anymore. What Barthes meant was that all meanings are now in the hands of the reader, the audience creates the meaning not the author or creator of the text.
- This means that regardless of the deep meanings the creators want their text to carry, if the audience don't read it that then it can be meaningless.
- Examples of style over substance:
- Most popular music videos - when you watch them there is no narrative and often they don't make sense. They don't have to, they just have to look good.
- Postmodernism is almost a response to the era in media when the division between high and popular culture was obvious.
- There were theorists who believed some texts had more validity than others because they were serious or part of 'high' culture.
- Postmodernists disagree with this - they believe these are value judgements and nothing actually to do with quality.
- As a response to this postmodernist texts can also be considered those that mix high and popular culture together.
- Jean Baudrillard argued for the "implosion of meaning in the media" he suggested that old structures of high and popular culture have been replaced with a mixture of the two he referred to it as the "bombsite" where the two meet but some would call it bricolage.
- Examples of mixing of high and popular culture:
- Some of the music videos such as those from Madonna where she uses icons and symbols of religion alongside imagery from popular culture.
- Bricolage can also be considered examples of the mixing of high and popular culture.
Hyper-reality
- Baudrillard also came up with the postmodernist notion of hyperreality.
- He believed that we live in such a media saturated era, where we are bombarded with media that much of our experiences are in the form of media, that much of our experiences are in the form of media, that much of our experiences are in the form of media texts rather than first-hand, direct experiences.
- He argues that as a result of this the media becomes "more real than the real".
- Since we now live through the media that the distinction between real and simulation breaks down and blurs.
- Baudrillard went on to argue that hyperreality is the condition where the distinction between real and simulation is not just blurred but the 'image' (the media) has started to gain the upper hand - when we believe media representations more than real - Fox News - B'ham no go zone.
Links between Bricolage & Hyper-reality
- Bricolage links to hyperreality
- Postmodernists argue that culture 'eats itself' because there is no longer anything new to produce or distribute so it uses whatever else is around it (bricolage).
- Since we no longer know what is real (reality is unreliable - hyperreality) we yearn for the past, when things seemed 'real' therefore nostalgia is popular.
- However even this nostalgia is a simulated version of the past - "When the real is no longer what it used to be, nostalgia assumes its full meaning. There is a proliferation of myths of origin and signs of reality: of second hand truth, objectivity and authenticity. These are an escalation of the true, of the lived experience." Baudrillard.
- One of the biggest criticisms of Postmodernism is that it is too vague.
- Since postmodernist do not believe in universal truths (metanarratives) there is an argument that it doesn't actually stand for anything at all.
- Some argue that postmodernism is simply a buzzword used by theorists and academics with little analytical or empirical knowledge.
- Dick Hebdige:
- "When It becomes possible for a people to describe as 'postmodern', the décor of a room, the design of a building, the narrative of a film, the construction of a song, a television commercial, or an arts documentary, or the 'intertextual' relations between them, the layout of a page in a fashion magazine or critical journal... a fascination for images, codes and styles, a process of cultural, political or existential fragmentation and / or crisis, the de-centring' of the subject an 'incredulity towards metanarratives' ,...the 'implosion of meaning', the collapse of cultural hierarchies - when it becomes possible to describe all these things as 'Postmodern' then it's clear we are in the presence of a buzzword."
- Another criticism of Postmodernism is that it is a pessimistic view of society and our future.
- Baudrillard and Lyotards ideas about postmodernism (hyperreality and the blurring of the lines between 'truth' and simulation) are both pessimistic arguments.
- Both men believed that this would lead to the breakdown of society in some way.
- They believed that the lack of notions of 'truth' and recycling old meanings in new combinations or for new meanings would impact on our sense of the past and our morality and society into the future.
- Some also argue that these ideas are cynical - what is the point in producing media or art or literature if there are no original ideas anymore?
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