Postmodernism

1. Postmodernism

2. Definitions • hard to define because the concept of postmodernism - applies to a wide variety of disciplines and is not about the objects or things but about the relationship between them • appears to be reactionary against theory and methods

3. Postmodernism • Postmodernism is ‘post’ because it denies the existence of any ultimate principles, and it lacks the optimism of there being a scientific, philosophical, or religious truth which will explain everything for everybody. • The paradox of the postmodern position is that, in placing all principals under the scrutiny of its scepticism, it must realise that even its own principles are not beyond questioning.

4. Concepts of Postmodernism • movement away from objectivity • blurring of distinction between genres • emphasis of fragmented form and/or fragmentation without regarding it as tragic; hence fragmentation could be celebrated and disorder can be seen as an acceptable representation of reality • discontinuous narratives [ e.g. doesn’t have to have the final stage in Todorov’s theory and open endings are unsettling] • tendency towards reflexivity and self consciousness

5. Concepts of Postmodernism • rejects the distinction between high and low art • a flattening of hierarchies • a reaction against elitism • a movement away from objectivity, and the artistic endeavour to represent an objective reality • emphasiesthe pastiche, parody, satire, irony, bricolage, playfulness, ambiguity, simultaneity

6. Concepts of Postmodernism • rejects boundaries • decentred: a reaction to assumed certainty and centralities of scientific or objective efforts to explain reality, ideas are specific and local rather that general and universal • reality is not simply a mirrored human experience, but a construction • sceptical of explanations or truths which claim to be valid for all groups, culture, traditions, or races, and instead focuses on the relative truth of each person

7. Concepts of Postmodernism • One of the essential elements of postmodernism is that it constitutes an attack against theory and methodology. In a sense postmodernists claim to relinquish all attempts to create new knowledge in a systematic fashion

8. Postmodern Thinking • the world is seen as a much more complex and uncertain place. • reality is no longer fixed or determined…all truth within a postmodern context is relative to one’s viewpoint or stance…the world is a representation. • interrogates philosophies, strategies, and world views • postmodern interpretation is introspective and anti-objectivist which is a form of individualized understanding. It is more a vision than data observation.

9. Concepts of Postmodernism • There is a concentration on fragmentation and discontinuity as well as ambiguity. These are seen as acceptable representations of reality. • Simultaneous view are not regarded as contradictory but as an integral part of the complex patterning of reality.

10. Postmodernism: Audience • audiences are invited or positioned to construct narratives and realities: e.g. video games ‘GTA’; ‘Run Lola Run’ and films with alternative endings • there is an attempt to find new and or more truthful versions of the world • audience is active not passive: uses and gratifications theory

11. Sceptics and Affirmatives Postmodernists • Sceptical Postmodernists: are extremely critical of the modern subject. They consider the subject to be a “linguistic convention” . They also reject any understanding of time because for them the modern understanding of time is oppressive in that it controls and measures individuals. They reject theory because theories are abundant, and no theory is considered more correct that any other. They feel that “theory conceals, distorts, and obfuscates, it is alienated, disparated, dissonant, it means to exclude, order, and control rival powers.” • Affirmative Postmodernists: also reject theory by denying claims of truth. They do not, however, feel that theory needs to be abolished but merely transformed. Affirmatives are less rigid than Sceptics. They support movements organized around peace, environment, and feminism. [Rosenau]

12. Theorists and Postmodernism • Dominic Strinati highlights five features of postmodernism • breakdown of the distinction between culture and society • an emphasis on style over substance • breakdown of the distinction between high art and popular culture • confusions over time and space • decline of metanarratives [Christianity, Marxism]

13. Theorists and Postmodernism • Jacques Derrida is concerned with the deconstruction of texts and probing the relationship of meaning between texts. Deconstruction is the peeling away and revealing the layers of constructed meanings within texts. Derrida avers that a text employs its own strategems against itself, producing a force of dislocation…hence, texts are never simply unitary but include resources that run counter to their assertions and/or their authors’ intentions. Therefore texts are ambiguous and are open to more than one interpretation. • Derrida directly attacks Western philosophy's understanding of reason. He sees reason as dominated by “a metaphysics of presence.” Derrida agrees with structuralism's insight, that meaning is not inherent in signs, but he proposes that it is incorrect to infer that anything reasoned can be used as a stable and timeless model.

14. Theorists and Postmodernism • Jean Baudrillard avers that postmodern societies, saturated by media and information technology, have entered an age of, now, third-order simulation: • first-order/signification [signs which imitate real things] reality is constructed through representation e.g. maps • second-order/reproduction [signs refer to signs which imitate real things] representations of reality are reproduced by technologies e.g. film, photography • third-order/simulation [signs no longer represent real things but serve to mask this absence of reality] no connection exists between reality and representation- instead we have hyperrealitye.g Disneyland

15. Theorists and Postmodernism • Jean Baudrillard: hyperreality and simulation • Hyperreality is the outcome of simulated imagery, what Baudrillard calls simulacra: ‘The simulacrum denies not reality, but the difference between the image and the real…there is no difference between the image and other orders of experience.’ [Fiske]

16. Criticisms of Postmodernism • Rosenau (1993) identifies seven contradictions in postmodernism: • 1. Its anti-theoretical position is essentially a theoretical stand.2. While postmodernism stresses the irrational, instruments of reason are freely employed to advance its perspective.3. The postmodern prescription to focus on the marginal is itself an evaluative emphasis of precisely the sort that it otherwise attacks.

17. Criticisms of Postmodernism • 4. Postmodernism stress intertextuality but often treats texts in isolation.5. By rejecting modern criteria for assessing theory, postmodernists cannot argue that there are no valid criteria for judgement.6. Postmodernism criticizes the inconsistency of modernism, but refuses to be held to norms of consistency itself. 7. Postmodernists contradict themselves by relinquishing truth claims in their own writings.

18. Criticisms of Postmodernism • Roy D’Andrade takes issue with the postmodernist attack on objectivity. He states that objectivity is in no way dehumanizing nor is objectivity impossible….“Science works not because it produces unbiased accounts but because its accounts are objective enough to be proved or disproved no matter what anyone wants to be true.” (D’Andrade 1995)

19. Example of texts for the case study • Festen (1998) Thomas Vinterburg • Run Lola Run (1998) Tom Tykwer • Bamboozled (2000) Spike Lee • Pulp Fiction (1994) Quentin Tarantino • Time Code (2000) Mike Figgis • The Matrix (1999) Andy and Lana Wachowski • Grand Theft Auto • Sims