What is postmodernism?
Postmodernism can be seen as reimagining and copying things off others. In regards to art its the modern version of the earlier version but still copied from previous work.
- Pastiche – the work of art, drama, literature, music or architecture that imitates the work of the artist.
- Parody – is work or a performance that imitates another work or performance with ridicule or irony.
- Bricolage – construction or creation of something. The creation of a character and creation of new identities.
- Intertextuality – the link between reality and a made up world
- Referential – the film talking about the film is REFERENTIAL (ie it refers to itself), for example when they are passionate and Allegro tells (us?) what the function of this scene is. Also at the end when each character analyses each character – motivation, script, narrative function etc
- Surface and style over substance and content
- Metanarrative
- Hyperreality – nothings really real or new as we always copy off something from earlier years.
- Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) – the idea of taking the viewer away from reality and placing them into a fake situation. audience imagination creates a simulation.
- Consumerist Society – one in which people devote a great deal of time, energy, resources and thought to “consuming”
- Fragmentary Identities – when the body divides traits and feelings, and groups them into smaller sections, keeping some of them hidden until a safe space for expression is provided
- Alienation- a rejection of social institutions and processes. Disassociation from reality into a made up world.
- Implosion
- cultural appropriation
- Reflexivity
Love box in your living room is a Pastiche. This is seen in “a cup of tea” written in 1960 shown 18 minutes into the show
“love box” is a pastiche to Adam Curtis “oh dearism”
In regards to memento
The film begins with Leonard shooting Teddy – the climax of his quest for vengeance. The main question facing Leonard is ‘Who killed his wife?’ and ‘How can he find him to take revenge?’ These questions seem to be answered in the first five minutes – so what enigmas are created for the audience as the plot moves (backwards in time)? How are these enigmas answered? Are the answers stable (i.e. are the undermined by what we discover later)?
The same as of mice and men, post modernism taking the events of. of mice and men making it the beginning of the story in memento.
Immanence = means literally ‘to remain within’, but seen by postmodernists as concept whereby things can exist without referring to anything outside of themselves for meaning
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.
concept of identity in post modernism
there is no real you its all just a collection of fragments
you are an ongoing project. for example if you chose to cut your hair the project has changed.
as a product we are all unstable GILES DELEUZE
none can tell us who we really are as ongoing problems and views in society change the notion of truth.
LUCAN we use other images to form ourselves
experiences constructed in the media influence us and create immersive experiences which feel real to us as a direct experience.
consumerism
you are what you buy
‘plastic self’ – we want to experience as much product as possible within our life spans.
‘expressive self’ using products to define and identify ourselves.
in memento
- there is no real you
- there’s no truth in history
- people that claim to known the truth are untrustworthy
- knowledge doesn’t add up
- fact and fiction are reliant on each other to the point where they cannot be divided.
Deleuze disputes the idea of a hierarchy to knowledge or experience or identity; and the notion of there being a core ‘truth’ that we can find by adding together knowledge.