Postmodernism

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Postmodernism - theory, theorists and
texts
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Theories of Genre
John FISKE
American Professor of Communication Arts, 2000s
Fiske develops Barthes semic code
A representation of a car chase only makes sense
in relation to all the others we have seen -
after all, we are unlikely to have experienced
one in reality, and if we did, we would,
according to this model, make sense of it by
turning it into another text, which we would also
understand intertextually, in terms of what we
have seen so often on our screens. There is then
a cultural knowledge of the concept 'car chase'
that any one text is a prospectus for, and that
is used by the viewer to decode it, and by the
producer to encode it. (Fiske 1987, 115)
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Theories of Genre
Roland BARTHES
French semiotic theorist
A scene from the Hollywood film The Day After
Tomorrow
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Theories of Genre
Roland BARTHES
French semiotic theorist
A real image of people fleeing the dust cloud
in the aftermath of 9/11
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Theories of Genre
Jacques DERRIDA
French philosopher
Jacques Derrida proposed that
'a text cannot belong to no genre, it cannot be
without... a genre. Every text participates in
one or several genres, there is no genreless
text' (Derrida 1981, 61).
Derrida is a structuralist and therefore this
principle goes against postmodernist thinking.
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Theories of Genre
Jacques DERRIDA
French philosopher
Derridas point helps to explain why commentators
on September 11th could only understand what they
were seeing as like a movie. This is perhaps
what Fiske means by saying we make sense of it
by turning it into another text.
Compare this to what Fiske says about never
having experienced a car chase. If we encounter a
real-life genre experience the decoding system in
our brains becomes confused.
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Theories of Genre
Claude LEVI-STRAUSS
French structuralist, 1970s
Levi-Strauss developed the concept of bricolage
Levi-Strauss saw any text as constructed out of
socially recognisable debris from other
texts. He saw that writers construct texts from
other texts by a process of Addition Deletion
Substitution Transposition
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Theories of Genre
Gerard GENETTE
French structuralist, 1990s
Genette developed the term transtextuality and
developed five sub-groups, but only 4 apply to
film

• intertextuality quotation, plagiarism, allusion
• architextuality designation of the text as part
  of a genre by the writer or by the audience
• metatextuality explicit or implicit critical
  commentary of one text on another text
• hypotextuality the relation between a text and a
  preceeding hypotext - a text or genre on which
• it is based but which it transforms, modifies,
• elaborates or extends (including parody,
• spoof, sequel, translation)

Which of our viewed films give examples of each
type?
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Postmodernist Theory
Postmodernist theory grows out of and extends
modernist and structuralist thinking. Postmoderni
sts might reject Derridas proposition that no
text can be without a genre. Postmodernists take
bricolage (Levi-Strauss) and the various
intertextualities identified by Genette,
extending their work into pure intertextuality
that breaches the bounds of genre.
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Non-postmodernist Theory
Talcott Parsons
Structural Functionalism
Talcott Parsons was a sociologist in the 1950s
who made observations of society leading to the
structural functionalist view. This view
suggests that society (like literature and film)
has necessary structures that keep it together.
Like Propps spheres of action, structural
functionalism sees roles in society, particularly
gender roles in the nuclear family. Structural
functionalists believed that if roles were not
fulfilled or changed then the structures would
adapt, entrenching new roles and society would
progress into the furure base on a new
structure. Postmodernists reject structures and
defined roles.
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Postmodernist Theory
The term postmodernism was coined in 1938 by an
English historian, Arnold Toynbee, after a term
used by a Spanish historian Federico de Onis.
Toynbee used it to mean the declining influence
of Christianity and the Western nations post
1875. This is definitely not how it is used in
current Media Studies. Jencks definition is
nearer the mark Post-Modernism is
fundamentally the eclectic mixture of any
tradition with that of its immediate past it is
both the continuation of Modernism and its
transcendence (Charles Jencks, What is
Post-Modernism?, 1986).
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Postmodernist Theory
Marshall McLuhan
Some theorists see postmodernism beginning after
the Second World War, when the major modern
political movements of Nazism and Communism were
called into question by Western thinkers. Others
date the movement to the 1960s, notably to
Marshall McLuhans coining of the phrase The
medium is the message, (1964). By this he means
that the manner in which the message is mediated
becomes more important than the meaning of the
message itself. In a era disillusioned by the
failure of great political hopes, by the
holocaust and by the loss of influence of
religion in Western society, mediation seemed set
to fill the vacuum. Out of this grew the idea
that theories were possible for how mediation
works - how it is built (representations), how it
influences audiences (hypodermic theory, uses and
gratifications, male gaze), how it references
itself (intertextuality). Previously, serious
thought was reserved for the messages (religion,
politics, philosophy) behind the mediation.
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Postmodernist Theory
Baudrillard
Baudrillard developed the ideas of McLuhan to the
point where it is possible to deny that the
message underneath the medium has any substance
at all. Therefore, the audience comes to perceive
through the media a world that appears real but
is not. In some ways this reflects what Rene
Magritte painted in 1928 in his work called The
treachery of Images.
Magritte captions an arrangement of paint on
canvas with the denotative words, Ceci nest pas
une pipe. (This is not a pipe). Our eyes tell
us it is a pipe because we are used to decoding
images, colour and perspective but it is not a
pipe for it cannot be smoked.
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Postmodernist Theory
Baudrillard
Baudrillard developed the idea of simulation and
simulacra simulation?the process in which
representations of things come to replace the
things being represented . . . the
representations become more important than the
"real thing? 4 orders of simulation? 1. signs
thought of as reflecting reality re-presenting
"objective" truth ?    2. signs mask
reality reinforces notion of reality ?   
3. signs mask the absence of reality eg
Disneyworld,?Watergate,LA life jogging,
psychotherapy, organic food?    4. signs
become simulacra - they have no relation
to reality they simulate a simulation Spinal
Tap, Cheers bars, new urbanism, starbucks, the
Gulf War was a video game, 9/11 has become the
coverage, not the event.
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Postmodernist Theory
Baudrillard
From the simulacrum, Baudrillard developed the
idea of hyperreality hyperreality?- a condition
in which "reality" has been replaced by
simulacra?argues that today we only experience
prepared realities-- edited war footage,
meaningless acts of terrorism, the Jerry Springer
Show. ?The very definition of the real has
become that of which it is possible to give an
equivalent reproduction. . . The real is not only
what can be reproduced, but that which is always
already reproduced that is the hyperreal. . .
which is entirely in simulation. Illusion is no
longer possible, because the real is no longer
possible.
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Postmodernist Theory
Baudrillard
Circular referentiality Baudrillard admires the
Mobius strip as an image of hyperreality - it is
never ending, it is a product of itself, it looks
like a circle but is not
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Postmodernist Theory
Lyotard
Lyotard rejected what he called the grand
narratives or universal meta-narratives. Princ
ipally, the grand narratives refer to the great
theories of history, science, religion, politics.
For example, Lyotard rejects the ideas that
everything is knowable by science or that as
history moves forward in time, humanity makes
progress. He would reject universal political
solutions such as communism or capitalism. He
also rejects the idea of absolute freedom. In
studying media texts it is possible also to apply
this thinking to a rejection of the Western
moralistic narratives of Hollywood film where
good triumphs over evil, or where violence and
explotation are suppressed for the sake of public
decency. Lyotard favours micronarratives that
can go in any direction, that reflect diversity,
that are unpredictable.
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Postmodernist Theory
Jonathan Kramer postmodern music theory

• Courtesy of Theo Miller.
• Kramer says "the idea that postmodernism is less
  a surface style or historical period than an
  attitude.
• Kramer goes on to say 16 "characteristics of
  postmodern music, by which I mean music that is
  understood in a postmodern manner, or that calls
  forth postmodern listening strategies, or that
  provides postmodern listening experiences, or
  that exhibits postmodern compositional
  practices."
• According to Kramer (Kramer 2002, 16?17),
  postmodern music"
• is not simply a repudiation of modernism or its
  continuation, but has aspects of both a break and
  an extension
• is, on some level and in some way, ironic
• does not respect boundaries between sonorities
  and procedures of the past and of the present
• challenges barriers between 'high' and 'low'
  styles
• shows disdain for the often unquestioned value of
  structural unity
• questions the mutual exclusivity of elitist and
  populist values
• avoids totalizing forms (e.g., does not want
  entire pieces to be tonal or serial or cast in a
  prescribed formal mold)
• considers music not as autonomous but as relevant
  to cultural, social, and political contexts
• includes quotations of or references to music of
  many traditions and cultures
• considers technology not only as a way to
  preserve and transmit music but also as deeply
  implicated in the production and essence of music
• embraces contradictions
• distrusts binary oppositions (see Theories of
  Narrative and Genre powerpoint)
• includes fragmentations and discontinuities
• encompasses pluralism and eclecticism

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Postmodernist Theory
Frederic Jameson
Jameson rejects postmodernism! Jameson
essentially believes that postmodernism provides
pastiche, humorously referencing itself and other
texts in a vacuous and meaningless circle.
Pastiche is distinct from parody, which uses
irony, humour and intertextual reference to make
an underlying and purposeful point.
Postmodernists would have no problem in making no
particular point - that is their point, but for
Jameson, literary and cultural output is more
purposeful than this and he therefore remains a
modernist in a world increasingly dominated by
postmodern culture. Jameson also sees reason for
the present generations to express themselves
through postmodernity as they are the product of
such a heavily globalised, multinational
dominated economy, which carries the
multinational media industry as one of its main
branches. The onmipresence of media output helps
explain postmodernists merging of all discourse
into an undifferentiated whole "there no longer
does seem to be any organic relationship between
the American history we learn from schoolbooks
and the lived experience of the current,
multinational, high-rise, stagflated city of the
newspapers and of our own everyday life (p.22
Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late
Capitalism. Durham, NC Duke University Press.
1991.)
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Postmodernist Theory
Mr. Ford
Media teacher and blogger from Lutterworth
College
A definition of postmodernism - Label given to
Cultural forms since the 1960s that display the
following qualities Self reflexivity this
involves the seemingly paradoxical combination of
self-consciousness and some sort of historical
grounding Irony Post modernism uses irony as a
primary mode of expression, but it also abuses,
installs, and subverts conventions and usually
negotiates contradictions through
irony Boundaries Post modernism challenges the
boundaries between genres, art forms, theory and
art, high art and the mass media Constructs
Post modernism is actively involved in examining
the constructs society creates including, but not
exclusively, the following Nation Post
modernism examines the construction of
nations/nationality and questions such
constructions Gender Post modernism reassesses
gender, the construction of gender, and the
role of gender in cultural formations Race Post
modernism questions and reassesses constructs of
race Sexuality Post modernism questions and
reassesses constructs of sexuality With
acknowledgement.
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Postmodernist Text
Dead Men Dont Wear Plaid
Intertextuality - This film mixes original
footage from well known films noir with modern
footage set in the noir period, using black and
white. Levi-Strauss might refer to this form of
intertextuality as transposition and/or
addition. Parody using homage, to show a
genuine appreciation of the noir style, period,
performance, although it is partly postmodernist
in the way that it is knowing in its adoption
of a slightly superior, benefit of hindsight
humour, making some of the extracts looks
overblown in their acting style. It is very
self-referential and uses ironic self-awareness.
It is postmodern in that it can be understood on
a variety of levels, depending on how familiar we
are with the original extracts and how far or how
amusingly they have been taken out of context.
Postmodern political ideas such as the male gaze
are shown in pastiche (eg The case of the girls
with the big tits). The film does not establish
a style of full hyperreality although it is
clearly not a naturalistic piece or full set in
versimilitude. Compare to Pulp Fiction,
Inglorious Basterds
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Postmodernist Text
Pleasantville dir Ross, 1998
Intertextuality - The film plays with images from
American soap opera and images of a bygone age
of America in the 1950s. Although the soap
Pleasantville within the must never be
mistaken for a real 1950s soap, it does parody
TV Programmes of that decade. It also echoes
images from TV shows like Happy Days and films
like Grease. Parody there are elements of
homage in Davids obsession with the TV soap
Pleasantville there are also sharp criticisms
of its unrealistic and escapist nature. The
naïveté and excessive innocence of the characters
is a pastiche not so much of the actual decade
but the portrayal of America as an ideal society
in the 50s and 60s. There are also elements of
nostalgia for the childhood of the filmmakers -
Gary Ross was born in 1956. Consider issues of
sensorship at the time and the way film/TV
companies were in thrall to the Catholic League
of Decency. Pleasantville is massively
self-referential and creates a hyperreal world
through the metaphor of David and Jennifer
actually entering the television set - which is
the opposite of Baudrillards threory of the
media simulation and simulacra engulfing our
real world existence. It is a very similar
metaphor to that of British TV programmes Life on
Mars and Ashes to Ashes where the distant echoes
from the world left behind by Sam Tyler or Alex
Drake come through a TV set breaking transmission
and speaking directly to those characters.
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Postmodernist Text
Pleasantville dir Ross, 1998
What is most clever about Pleasantville
postmodernism is that the world of the TV soap
is portrayed without full verisimilitude - it is
not just that it is black and white but it is
over-idealised, too clean, too pleasant in a
world visually similar To that occupied by
Truman in The Truman Show. The key to the film
is the way that whilst Jennifer starts out as a
corrupting influence on the youth of
Pleasantville, she also learns how to improve her
own life. David and the Pleasantvillians learn
from the modern world but Jennifer learns about
books and the value of education in the
emancipation of women from what she has seen in
the historical situation of Pleasantville. This
fits Jencks definition of postmodernism very well
- an eclectic mixture of any tradition with that
of its immediate past. The ambiguous ending of
Pleasantville - suggesting that change is okay
per se, even if we do not know what it will be -
places it in the postmodern idiom by defying the
need for a film to end conclusively or with
certainty. The world has not necessarily improved
for David, Betty, George or Bill - its just
different, and thats okay. Unfortunately, this
in itself could also be seen as a cheesy version
of a postmodernist moral - and postmodernist art
should not carry a moral, by definition.
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Postmodernist Text
LA Confidential dir Hansn, 1997
In many ways, this is a conventional film but it
does contain elements of Postmodernism both in
its message about sellin an image and in the
danger of its approach to historical
interpretation. The film is self-referential in
that it deliberately challenges images of reality
portrayed by the contemporary media and suggests
that the media was in the pockets of the
political authorities. The TV show Badge of
Honor (pastiching the real series, Dragnet)
presents the image of the LAPD that the mayor
desires to public to have - the walk on water
as Sid Hudgens puts it. Sid Hudgens embryo
tabloid journalism is clearly shown to fake its
stories, with the collusion of Sergeant Jack
Vincennes. Vincennes describes his role as
adviser to Badge of Honor by saying that he
teaches Brett Chase to walk and talk like a
cop. When his companion points out that Brett
Chase doesnt walk and talk like you Vincennes
replies with the actor/characters full ironic
self-awareness that America isnt ready for the
real me. Kevin Spacey has said that he modeled
his portrayal of Vincennes on the persona of Dean
Martin - 50s cool - and in a scene of
multi-layered intertextuality, he looks into the
mirror behind the bar in the Frolic Room (a
real LA bar), sees his life disappearing into
drink, corruption and illusion while Dean Martin
sings smile, smile, smile in the
background. The film also challenges binary
oppositions through James Ellroys use of the
three-man structure of having three detective
heroes of equal status and no particular
antagonist, although it could be said that Dudley
Smith assumes this role when he shoots Jack
Vincennes.
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Postmodernist Text
LA Confidential dir Hanson, 1997
Any period piece set in the past and selectively
choosing what elements to suppress and which to
emphasise is in danger of making a postmodern
re-interpretation of that past. The film
avowedly avoids noir style in its approach to
cinematography and lighting and locations are
chosen to create a mise-en-scene that feels both
1950s and contemporaneous with today. The film is
not constrained by the Hayes Code, as would have
been a crime film made in 1953. This raises the
question of whether the audience sees a more or
less accurate representation of LA in the 1950s
than we receive from a film made at the time. In
this sense we can question whether. This fits
with a historical approach to postmodernism and
challenges the view that there was a better, more
innocent time somewhere in the past because the
film seeks to blend images and interpretations of
the past with images of the present, perhaps
proving that the 1950s were more similar to our
own times than we have been led (or have led
ourselves) to believe or perhaps creating a
never-time that is nothing but a hyperreality.
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Postmodernist Text
Enchanted dir Lima, 2007
It seems odd to propose a Disney film as
postmodern because that studio seems the
quintessence of innocent plotlines and happy
endings. This film, however seems to show
postmodernism creeping into the mainstream. Like
Shrek, the film is full of irony and
self-referentiality in the guise of humour for
Mums and Dads. In fact, the whole intertextual
concept of crashing together a Disney cartoon
princess with the jaded real world of a New York
divorce lawyer is very postmodern and totally
self-referential. The plot moves through
familiar stages of the present day world learning
from the innocence of the past world (represented
by the Disney fairytale) and the cartoon
characters learning from the real world - even
Prince Charming comes to accept the value of
dating before marriage. Its all quite corny -
but in a very humerous and ironic manner.
Traditional elements are all there - functioning
as structures - such as the defeat of the wicked
step-mother, an icon of failed marriage and
dysfunctional family relationships. Perhaps most
ironic is the way the women swap worlds -
Princess Giselle remains in New York whereas the
feminist Nancy loves the spontaneity and romance
of Prince Charming, returning with him to
Andalasia.
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Postmodernist Text
Twin Peaks
Intertextuality - This TV series by David Lynch,
a director well known for his postmodernist
texts, has many intertextual references. Such
references were sometimes explicit and explained
by the characters involved, or were more
obscure. For instance, any reference to the
black lodge or the white lodge in Twin Peaks is
a reference to the Tibetan Book of the Dead, but
also to Christianity and its notions of heaven
and hell. Like Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks
"provides an improbable and disturbing stitching
together of different genres and genre
expectations" through its "running together in a
postmodern fashion the tradition of the small
town film" with a rhizomatic mix of the
unpresentable and the common place. Twin Peaks'
small town locale, affluence and lack of children
is reminiscent of other night time soap operas of
its era, including Dallas, Falcon Crest and
Knot's Landing. However, the fact that its male
hero resolves the central narrative of this
series through a mix of traditional detective
work and intuitive techniques questions gender
stereotypes in the extra filmic world and poses a
challenge to the conventions of the detective
genre.
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Postmodernist Text
Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks surrealistically used a variety of
characters with mythic proportions including
dancing dwarves, giants, doppelgangers and owls
plus the spiritually charged black and white
lodges to depict the role of divine influence in
people's lives. And as within postmodern culture,
everything about Twin Peaks was plural. It lay
within two mountains, had two creators, numerous
directors with broad film and television
experience plus two versions of its double pilot
and finale episodes. This postmodern spirit is
also evident in the numerous popular culture
references found in Twin Peaks which are used to
extend upon its intertextual meaning. For
instance, the series murder victim Laura is
loosely based around a character from the 1950's
noir film Laura. Indeed, Laura's presence as the
central, absent figure in Twin Peaks' narrative
is also somewhat reminiscent of Alfred
Hitchcock's 'Rebecca'. The Sheriff of Twin
Peaks, Harry S Truman, gained his name from an ex
US President while Dale Cooper is named after a
prominent Northwest American figure. The
brothers Ben and Jerry, who are food obsessed,
are named after a gourmet icecream and the
brothel in the series is named after the 1950's
Marlon Brando Film 'One Eyed Jack.' In addition
to this the one eyed character in the series,
Nadine Hurley, is a female version of one of the
most popular soap characters of the eighties,
Patch from 'Days of Our Lives' while biker James
Hurley is intended to be a nineties version of
James Dean. The utilisation of double coding,
double genres, intertextual references, plural
meanings and irony in Twin Peaks and Fire Walk
With Me reflects the plurality and spirit of
postmodernism as a whole.
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Postmodernist Text
Chris Morris - JAM
Jam was a postmodern British comedy series
created, written and directed by Chris Morris
and broadcast on Channel 4 during March and April
2000. It was based on the earlier BBC Radio 1
show, Blue Jam, and consisted of a series of
unsettling sketches unfolding over an ambient
soundtrack. Many of the sketches re-used the
original radio soundtracks with the actors
lip-synching their lines, an unusual technique
which added to the programme's unsettling
atmosphere. So why is it classed as
Postmodern? Meaning is superficial, not deep -
Its a work of pop culture championing the
slipperiness of meaning like Twin Peaks, some
sketches can be taken at face value (lizards in a
TV), whilst others are far darker (little girl
hitman). Does Chris Morris mean anything by
creating such disturbing sketches? Or rather,
does the audience bring meaning to the text? We,
the audience, interpret what we see and decide
whether its funny, unsettling, sad, shocking
etcnot Chris Morris. Its self-referential, as
Chris Morris takes what is normally represented
by a comedy sketch show and subverts this.
Audience expects to find comedy sketches funny,
jokes with a build-up then a punch line, to feel
comfortable, to watch recognisable character
types, for meaning to be clearJam does the
opposite. Whilst many comedy sketch shows purport
to show (or to exaggerate) real characters or
situations (remember Little Britain), Jam
doesnt pretend to represent reality or to
exaggerate it in a normal sense it subverts it
and plays with our expectations. It uses
decontextualisation he uses objects outside
normal context (lizards in the TV)! It uses
Juxtaposition two extreme objects put
together that shouldnt (young girl as a
hitman) Baudrillard tells us audiences makes
sense of the real world by using the hyperreal,
images we have watched and processed from the
media. Ask us what a car chase is like and we
describe a film version, not something based on
reality. Chris Morris knows that for many people,
what they see on TV is what is realso he gives
us something that is wholly unreal, that doesnt
pretend to show reality.
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Postmodernist Text
Chris Morris The Day Today
The Day Today was a surreal British parody of
television news programmes broadcast in 1994.
Each episode is presented as a mock news
programme, and the episodes rely on a
combination of ludicrous fictitious news stories,
covered with a serious, pseudo-professional
attitude. So why is it postmodern? Lyotard says
that in a postmodern world we tend to question
everything, we don't trust what we see before us,
and we look for hidden meanings in things. The
Day Today clearly does this, as Chris Morris
wants to highlight how unreal the news actually
is. News programmes purportedly represent truth,
represent whats really happening in the world.
Yet, as weve seen from Charlie Brookers
Newswipe programme, the news is often misleading
(cardboard boxes in Haiti). Chris Morris uses
over-the-top graphics, sound, interviews and
silly sketches (Elvis fan on death row) to
highlight how unreal the news is. It is also, of
course, self-referential on the face of it
Chris Morriss news presenter represents what we
expect (smart suit, clear authoritative voice,
neat hair, studio based etc). Yet he plays with
this representation and breaks down what the
audience expects a seemingly pleasant interview
about making jam for charity has his character
crushing the interviewee, he mocks his fellow
presenters, chats up and uses obvious innuendo
with another presenter, etcThe sketches are also
self-referential on the one hand typical of news
reports, but the stories are often ridiculous or,
in the case of the weather reports, simply
meaningless.