- Pastiche – A copy that could be art, literature or tv, in a serious way
- Parody – Something that mocks art, literature or the media, made for comedy purposes
- Bricolage – construction or creation from a diverse range of available things.
- Intertextuality – a reference or parallel to another literary work, an extended discussion of a work, or the adoption of a style.
- Referential – relating to a referent, in particular having the external world rather than a text or language as a referent
- Surface and style over substance and content –
- Metanarrative- A metanarrative is a narrative about narratives of historical meaning, experience, or knowledge/drawing attention to the process of storytelling
- Hyperreality-where audiences cant tell the difference from reality and non-reality.
- Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) – something that replaces reality with representation.
- Consumerist Society – hedonism.
- Fragmentary Identities- exploration of the fragmentation and reconstruction of identity in the modern age.
- Alienation- feeling withdrawn or ostracised within society.
- Implosion- Best and Kellner summarize Baudrillards theory: distinctions implode between classes, political ideologies, cultural forms, and between media semiurgy and the real itself
- cultural appropriation-
- Reflexivity-a metaphor for the ontological questioning, discussion, and anxiety of the present age.
Postmodernism: Where all ideologies and beliefs are questioned.
The Love Box In Your Living Room – Parody
3 reasons why it’s a parody.
| Pastiche | |
| Parody | The end scene includes the characters critiquing the film. |
| Bricolage | ExistenZ had a $31 budget so had a wide range of tools available. Also exhibited theories such as Baudrillard’s simulation theory and Stuart Hall’s Encoding and decoding model. |
| Intertextuality | The film has a postmodern outlook while supporting the idea of Baudrillards simulation theory , other films also support these ideas(The Matrix 1999) |
| Referential | The film refers to itself |
| Surface and style over substance and content | |
| Metanarrative | |
| Hyperreality | |
| Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) | |
| Consumerist Society | |
| Fragmentary Identities | |
| Alienation | |
| Implosion | |
| cultural appropriation | |
| Reflexivity |
Postmodernism Notes
Urry goes on to note that the global population grew during the twentieth century from 2 to 6 billion, it’s now at 8 billion with some reports suggesting it will hit 9 million by 2037. This has given rise to mega-cities. Rather than forming mass centres of communal, shared living, such mega-cities often create more isoloation, more individualism, more fractured and alienated individuals struggling to survive and keep alive.
Another characteristic of POSTMODERNISM is the creation, development and concentration of high consumption, with a displacement of both consumption and production that has radically altered the nature of societies and individuals living in them. This approach in terms of postmodernism is associated with Fredric Jameson‘s 1984 essay, and subsequently 1991 book; Postmodernism, or the Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism which located postmodern culture (for example, music videos) in the expression of a new phase of capitalism, one which was aggressively consumerist, rampantly commodifying all of society as potential new markets for INDIVIDUALISED, ISOLATED, PERSONAL PLEASURE AND GAIN.
Surface and style over substance (Postmodernism)
‘in a postmodern world, surfaces and style become the most important defining features of the mass media and popular culture‘
the fragmentary, decentred nature of music videos that break up traditional understandings of time and space so that audiences are ‘no longer able to distinguish ‘fiction’ from ‘reality’, part of the postmodern condition’
Narrative Theory Quick Recap
Linear, Chronological, Sequential, Circular, Narrative arc, foreshadowing,
Vladimir Propp (Character Types and Function)
uses STOCK CHARACTERS to structure stories (e.g. hero, villain, helper, victim, false hero, princess, dispatcher)
- Stock characters
- Narratemes
- Characters and their roles (hero, villain, helper, princess, false hero, father)
Claude Levi-Strauss (Binary Oppositions)
Creates a dominant message (ideology) of a film. However, as mentioned previously, the way in which individual students / audience members decode specific texts, is also contingent on their own individual ideas, attitudes and beliefs
- Binary Oppositions
- Narrative is a structure of themes that relays a dominant message
Todorov:
- Equilibrium, Disruption, New Equilibrium
- Frame stories (stories within stories)
- Single character transformations: The idea that characters follow a journey that leads to a realisation, changed personality. Linking to Ancient Greek narrative structures:
Barthes:
- Semiotics
- Hermeneutic code = Dialogue, character, reflection
- Proairetic code = Action and movement
- Enigmas = Puzzles, keeping the audience guessing
Freytag’s Pyramid:
paradigm of dramatic structure outlining the seven key steps in successful storytelling: exposition, inciting incident, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution, and denouement.
- exposition – the background information that is given at the beginning of a story about the characters, setting etc…
- inciting incident – the narrative event which launches the main action
- rising action – the bulk of the plot which builds up to the climax
- climax – the turning point or crisis in a narrative which is often the highest point of interes
- falling action – when the climax begins to resolve
- resolution – when the climax is resolved
- denouement – when conflict in a plot is resolved and the plot concludes
Aristotle
- Catharsis-Aristotle describes catharsis as the purging of the emotions of pity and fear that are aroused in the viewer of a tragedy
- Peripetia– Peripeteia is the reversal from one state of affairs to its opposite
- Anagnorisis– a change from ignorance to knowledge
- 3 Unities : Time, Place, Action. The idea that a narrative should be consistent and should encompass the same place, time frame and plot/action.
Roland Barthes
He came up with the ideology that narratives are often made up of action and thinking or talking about action. Barthes came up with two different codes to distinguish these.
- Proairetic code = Action, movement
- Hermenuetic code = Dialogue, character, reflection
Enigmas are puzzles that keep the audience engaged with the narrative. Enigma code is the way in which ideas are raised. How they keep the audience wanting more.