• Man can’t make new memories after accident, short-term memory loss
• Flashbacks
• Linear
• Time can change (jump ahead and jump back) this happens in Memento
• Half in colour and half in b & w, b & w showing the future and colour showing present, parallel narrative
• Propp theory – Hero, Villian, Victim etc
• Enigma code (puzzle) something to resolve – Pleasure in trying to find out what will happen next
• Memento is thinking about itself (the film)
• Keeps flipping back and forth but has a linear structure
• Leonard has false memories but can’t make new ones which shows his memories will be false
• Leonard decides to live a lie and search for someone who is already dead
• Todorov – Equilibrium (where we first find out about his disorder) disruption (looking for John G) new equilibrium (Finds out he’s already killed John G and Leonard decides to live in a lie)
• Seymour Chapman – The Kernel is his short-term memory loss, satellites may be Teddy/John G, Natalie, Sammy etc
• Leonard creates an enigma code with him choosing to live a lie and search for ‘John G’

Postmodernism is about referencing the self around today’s society. It suggests that the world has lost the main narrative and how about society only cares about how they appear to people.

RE-IMAGINING

PASTICHE: A piece that imitates an ready existing piece.

PARODY: Making a joke of a piece of existing work.

COPY: Directly remaking a piece of work.

BRICOLAGE

Fragmentary consumption = Fragementary identities. This means that there is no depth to people as society want to show people once aspect of themselves.

Postmodernism is about referencing itself

Key Concepts:

RE-IMAGINING, PASTICHE, PARODY, COPY, BRICOLAGE.

Postmodernism is seen as a complicated and fragmentary set of inter relationships , it is about self-referentiality .

Can be seen as a Parody or Pastiche

Pastiche – is a work of art, drama, literature, music or architecture that imitates the work of previous artists.

parody – is a work or performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony

Postmodernism suggest we live in a world full of surface signs.

Bricolage – is a useful term to apply to postmodernist texts as it ‘involves the rearrangement and juxtaposition of previously unconnected signs to produce new codes of meaning’ (Barker & Jane, 2016:237)

Intersexuality – is another useful term to use, as it suggests signs only have meaning in reference to other signs and that meaning is therefore a complex process of decoding/encoding with individuals both taking and creating meaning in the process of reading texts

In postmodern society we are unable to distinguish Fiction from Reality.

A theory to help us understand who we are now and the times that we are living in. – linked to media, photography (other creative things)

A complicated and fragmentary set of inter-relationships, a practice of re-imagination

Pastiche is a work of art, drama, literature, music, or architecture that imitates the work of a previous artist

Parody is a work or performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony

New iterations

We live in a society of surface signs

Loss of the metanarrative (we don’t know what the big picture is, we only know small fragments of the story)

BRICOLAGE is a useful term to apply to postmodernist texts as it ‘involves the rearrangement and juxtaposition of previously unconnected signs to produce new codes of meaning’ (Barker & Jane, 2016:237)

Too much of something eventually becomes pointless (excessively saturated by things)

Hyperreality – nothing is real or seems real

Uncertainty – insecurity of knowing or not knowing things

Baudrillard – we live in a hyperreal, simulated reality where we can’t always know what to trust.

There is no real ‘you’ just an idea of what you look like, and people change themselves to look and appear as they want to.

Postmodernism helps us understand the time we live in now. It is linked to subjects such as media, photography and art and is seen as complicated and fragmentary.

Parody vs Pastiche

PARODY – a work of art, drama, literature, theatre, music or architecture that imitates the work of a previous artist.

PASTICHE – a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche celebrates, rather than mocks, the work it imitates.

Big Question:

How could ‘Memento’ be classed as a postmodern text?

• Intertexuality: sampling artistic styles, plot or character conventions from other forms and genres
• The ‘writerly text’ (Roland Barthes): a text whose meaning is created by the reader/consumer rather than being fixed in the text by the writer/producer.
• There is no cohesive identity, no ‘real you’; we are different people in each individual situation, virtual and actual. Our identities are in constant flux.
• There is no ‘truth’ in history (personal or national), memory cannot be relied upon as evidence for knowledge;
• People who claim to know the ‘truth’ can’t be trusted;
• Fiction and fact depend on each other to the point that they can’t be divided – in the end they can’t be separated;
• Knowledge doesn’t ‘add up’ cohesively to ‘truth’; there are too many contradictory elements.

Rhizomatic thought = ‘rhizomes’ are plant life that don’t follow the root-tree system e.g. fungus or mould. There is no ‘core’, no lesser or greater elements. If you destroy the centre of a mould the rest doesn’t die (like if you destroyed the trunk of a tree), it continues to thrive. Modern terrorist movements have a ‘rhizomatic’ structure: there is no single leader, issuing orders down the chain of command with an overall goal that every unit is working towards.

When looking at moving image products, it is therefore possible to look for patterns, codes, conventions that share a common features. 

it is clear that narratives are a combination of many individual elements (sound, image, text etc) which are edited (connected) together. Narratives are organised around a particular theme and space and are based in an idea of time.

STORY is often associated with themes and meaning and can be decoded from all of the different elements that are used, for example, the characters, setting, props and themes etc. Whereas the PLOT is the way in which the story (elements/themes/ideas/meaning) is organised and sequenced. 


Theoretical idea that helps us to understand the times we are living in now and what we are doing now. Postmodernism is characterised by re imagining, PASTICHE, PARODY, COPY, BRICOLAGE. It is not worrying about the meta-narrative which are deep questions (eg why we are here) but just focusing on whats going on in the moment. Postmodernism suggests we dont know whats real anymore eg Memento: ‘facts are more important than memory’. Unable to distinguish fiction from reality.

The film is a rearrangement of unconnected signs.

We live in a post modernist culture. Eg tiktok being superficial.

Self referentiality means always referencing itself. In memento we see the same things over and over again.

pastiche is a work of art, drama, literature, music, or architecture that imitates the work of a previous artist.

parody is a work or performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony

Memento is characterised with Intertextuality such as surface signs, gestures & play

For example in memento his body is filled with tattoos which are signs.

BRICOLAGE is a useful term to apply to postmodernist texts as it ‘involves the rearrangement and juxtaposition of previously unconnected signs to produce new codes of meaning’ (Barker & Jane, 2016:237). 

finding narrative structures in this film

Explaining the theory;

Seymour Chatman: Satellites & Kernels

• Kernels: key moments in the plot / narrative structure
• Satellites: embellishments, developments, aesthetics

 break down a narrative into 2 distinct elements. Those elements which are absolutely essential to the story / plot / narrative development, which are known as KERNELS and those moments that could be removed and the overall logic would not be disturbed, known as SATELLITES. 

Relating it to the film;

kernels in this movie I would say would be his illness of memory loss and the inability to make new memories. or the explanation behind the polards.

Explaining the theory;

 Vladimir Propp (Character Types and Function)

CHARACTERS FUNCTION TO PROVIDE NARRATIVE STRUCTURE:

1. Hero
2. Helper
3. Princess
4. Villain
5. Victim
6. Dispatcher
7. Father 
8. False Hero

Relating it to the film;

John I would say is portrayed as the villain in the story as we are told so far he killed and raped lends wife

Lenard/lenny- I would say gives off the hero/victim character structure as he deals with the loss of his wife and his illness but descides to do something about it and get revenge on the person who hurt him and his wife.

Explaining the theory;

 Roland Barthes: Proairetic and Hermenuetic Codes

• Proairetic code: action, movement, causation
• Hermenuetic code: reflection, dialogue, character or thematic development

Roland Barthes talks about enigma code;the way in which intrigue and ideas are raised- which encourages the audience to want to learn more eg who dun it film, films that give you just enough info but still missing key parts that make the audience want to learn more and figure out.

elision and elipsis are when you cut things out. rarely movie is in real time you have edits

movies can rearrange time

flashbacks and flashforwards

and foreshadowing (showing the end of the film at the start)

and dramatic irony (where the audience knows something the characters dont)

2 story’s happening at the same time- parallel or simultaneous narratives

light and shade to have the movie not be all intense all the time example being having jokes in the middle

non sequitars are parts of narratives that create an enigma but lead no where

Theory about NOW. linked to media digitization. Referential, refers to itself.

Complicated and fragmentary set of inter-relationships. Fragmentary consumption = Fragmentary identities

Preoccupation with visual style.

Key characteristics of postmodernism is the development of fragmented, alienated individuals living in fragmented societies.