postmodernism – a social philosophical theory of NOW.

postmodern culture is referential. “The pleasure is what’s going to find out what’s happening next”

it’s possible to understand postmodernism as a complicated and fragmentary set of inter-relationships:

• a practice of re-imagining, pastiche, bricolage and self-referentiality

postmodernism suggests that there is “nothing new” in the world, and that the world repeats itself.

postmodernism is characterised by “surface” – things that look good and “superficiality”.

the preoccupation with visual (postmodern) style neglects the idea of meta-narrative

memento discusses that there is “no metanarrative” (which is described as leonard not knowing anything)

memento uses flashbacks as a way to piece together the metanarrative

postmodernism has the ideas of ‘fragmented identities’ – different identities in different situations

memento’s characters all fall into fragmented identity – with natalie and leonard.

a key characteristic of postmodernism is the development of fragmented, alienated individuals living (precariously) in fragmented societies

postmodern culture is about consumer culture and ultimately the world in a capitalist society

Big Question:

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

• the plot of the movie is half-ambigious, it is hard to tell fact from fiction, especially at the ending.
• characters are shown with fractured identities – identities that change, identities that are different for each schenario
• the ‘facts’ leonard notes down turn out to be lies that he tells himself at the beginning that he trusts as fact later
• there are too many enigmas within the film presenting contradictory evidence to come to a solid truth

Look for evidence of these postmodern phenomena:

• 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.