This document discusses various concepts related to postmodernism, including theories proposed by theorists such as Fiske, Barthes, Derrida, Levi-Strauss, Genette, Baudrillard, Lyotard, Kramer, and Jameson. It examines ideas around intertextuality, genres, simulation, hyperreality, and rejection of grand narratives. Key concepts covered include codes, cultural knowledge, making sense of reality through other texts, circular referentiality, and pastiche vs parody.

1. Postmodernism - theory, theorists and texts

2. Theories of Genre John FISKE Fiske develops Barthes’ semic code: American Professor of Communication Arts, 2000s 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)

3. Theories of Genre Roland BARTHES French semiotic theorist A scene from the Hollywood film ‘The Day After Tomorrow’

4. Theories of Genre Roland BARTHES French semiotic theorist A ‘real’ image of people fleeing the dust cloud in the aftermath of ‘9/11’

5. Theories of Genre Jacques DERRIDA Jacques Derrida proposed that French philosopher '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.

6. Theories of Genre Jacques DERRIDA French philosopher Derrida’s 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.

7. Theories of Genre 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 Claude LEVI-STRAUSS French structuralist, 1970s

9. Postmodernist Theory Postmodernist theory grows out of and extends modernist and structuralist thinking. Postmodernists might reject Derrida’s 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.

10. Non-postmodernist Theory 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 Propp’s 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. Talcott Parsons Structural Functionalism

11. 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: ‘ Po st-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).

12. Postmodernist Theory 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 McLuhan’s 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. Marshall McLuhan

13. Postmodernist Theory 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.’ Baudrillard Magritte captions an arrangement of paint on canvas with the denotative words, “Ceci n’est 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.

14. Postmodernist Theory 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. Baudrillard

15. Postmodernist Theory 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. Baudrillard

16. Postmodernist Theory 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: Baudrillard

17. Postmodernist Theory Lyotard rejected what he called the “grand narratives” or universal “meta-narratives.” Principally, 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. Lyotard

19. Postmodernist Theory 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.) Frederic Jameson

21. Postmodernist Text 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 Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid

22. Postmodernist Text 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 David’s 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 Baudrillard’s 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. Pleasantville dir Ross, 1998

23. Postmodernist Text 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 - it’s just different, and that’s 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. Pleasantville dir Ross, 1998

24. Postmodernist Text 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 doesn’t walk and talk like you’ Vincennes replies with the actor/character’s full ironic self-awareness that ‘America isn’t 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 Ellroy’s 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. LA Confidential dir Hansn, 1997

25. Postmodernist Text 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. LA Confidential dir Hanson, 1997

26. Postmodernist Text 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. It’s 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. Enchanted dir Lima, 2007

27. Postmodernist Text 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. Twin Peaks

28. Postmodernist Text 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. Twin Peaks

29. Postmodernist Text 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 - It’s 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 it’s funny, unsettling, sad, shocking etc…not Chris Morris. It’s 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 clear…Jam does the opposite. Whilst many comedy sketch shows purport to show (or to exaggerate) ‘real’ characters or situations (remember ‘Little Britain’), Jam doesn’t 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 shouldn’t (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 real…so he gives us something that is wholly unreal, that doesn’t pretend to show ‘reality’. Chris Morris - JAM

30. Postmodernist Text 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 what’s really happening in the world. Yet, as we’ve seen from Charlie Brooker’s 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 Morris’s 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, etc…The 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. Chris Morris – The Day Today