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POST-MODERNISM

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Postmodernism is a theory that looks at how the world is transforming into a place that is populated by a culmination of signs which are neither truthful nor fake.

Postmodernism is an almost re-imagining of what has came before. A copy, bricolage of past creations.

‘the concept that the meaning of a text does not reside in the text, but is produced by the reader‘

Postmodernism can be seen as a sort of parody, confusing and deliberately existential concept generated to create a confusion between simulation and reality.

TERMDEFINITION
PasticheWork of art, drama, literature or music that imitates a previous work.
Parody Work that uses irony or ridicule to imitate a previous work/performance.
BricolageA French term that translates to ‘do-it-yourself’. The idea looks at how to create art from any materials that are available.
IntertextualityReferencing other work in new works. Copying elements of literature, film, art etc. as influence for something else.
Referential
Surface and style over substance and context
MetanarrativeMeta = Big
Narrative = How a story is structured
Hyper-realityThe idea that we live in a world that is “beyond reality”, an illusion or simulation far from the truth.
Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) Something that replaces reality with its representation
Consumerist SocietyWe currently live in a society that survives off of advertising, buying, selling and consuming. This level of consumption leads to the feeling of a simulation.
Fragmentary IdentitiesThe idea that we often construct different identities dependant on where we are, who we are with etc. This is fragmented.
AlienationThe idea that we are disassociated to the world we live in.
ImplosionThe idea that meaning is now meaningless. Due to a combinations of signs within society.
Cultural AppropriationTaking properties and characteristics from other cultures and appropriating them to another.
Reflexivity

‘The Love Box in Your Living Room‘ is a parody. It is structured using the codes and conventions of a documentary: a mockumentary of the BBC and how it originated.

Actor and comedian Paul Whitehouse plays a parodied character of Lord John Reith – the first Director General of the BBC. It is clear that this is a parody due to his caricature appearance.

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Postmodernism

Postmodernism

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  1. Pastiche – an artistic work in a style that imitates that of another work, artist, or period.
  2. Parody – an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect
  3. Bricolage – construction or creation from a diverse range of available things.
  4. Intertextuality – can be a reference or parallel to another literary work, an extended discussion of a work, or the adoption of a style.
  5. Referential – the film talking about the film is REFERENTIAL (i.e., 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
  6. Surface and style over substance and content.
  7. Metanarrative –
  8. Hyperreality – Baudrillard suggests we live in a world that is ‘real’ but not really ‘real’ we can see that in the film in that we are never quite sure what is the real world or the game world?
  9. Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) – the inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality.
  10. Consumerist Society – a society in which people often buy new goods, especially goods that they do not need, and in which a high value is placed on owning many things.
  11. Fragmentary Identities – multidisciplinary collaboration, involving visual communication, performative arts and fashion.
  12. Alienation – a withdrawing or separation of a person or a person’s affections from an object or position of former attachment.
  13. Implosion – a situation in which something fails suddenly and completely, or the fact of this happening
  14. cultural appropriation –
  15. Reflexivity= the fact of someone being able to examine their own feelings, reactions, and motives
  16. Deconstructive postmodernism

definition – the copying and reimagining of things. Idea of a parody or a pastiche.

Love Box in the living room is a pastiche of Adam Curtis’ work

It is also a parody…

Postmodernism

POSTMODERNISM

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How we moved from traditional solid structures to the shifting, uncertain markers of the new world?

If so how do we understand it? Ideas around the concept of POSTMODERNISM may help us to navigate . . .

Over the next couple of weeks as we run up to Xmas we will look at this topic. We will look at a couple of films and we will answer a couple of exam questions and then . . . it’s over!

Definitions of Key terms

  1. Pastiche
  2. Parody
  3. Bricolage  
  4. Intertextuality
  5. Referential
  6. Surface and style over substance and content
  7. Lack of a Metanarrative
  8. Hyperreality
  9. Simulation (sometimes termed by Baudrillard as ‘Simulacrum’) 
  10. Consumerist Society
  11. Fragmentary Identities
  12. Alienation
  13. Implosion
  14. cultural appropriation
  15. Reflexivity
  16. Individualism

How can we understand The Love Box in your Living Room?

  1. What is it?
  2. What meaning does it hold for each of us?

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2022/oct/14/our-whole-show-is-complete-bollocks-paul-whitehouse-and-harry-enfield-on-their-bbc-mockumentary

Postmodernism can be understood as a philosophy that is characterised by concepts such as RE-IMAGINING, PASTICHE, PARODY, COPY, BRICOLAGE. It’s an approach towards understanding, knowledge, life, being, art, technology, culture, sociology, philosophy, politics and history that is REFERENTIAL – in that it often refers to and often copies other things in order to understand itself.

In other words, new expressions of identity and being – often found in popular culture and/or modern technology, are actually new iterations (versions) of previous expressions of popular culture. It is therefore possible to understand postmodernism as a complicated and fragmentary set of inter-relationships, a practice of re-imagining, pastiche, bricolage and self-referentiality, which may be understood alongside another key expression / concept: intersectionality that has been discussed in this post.

Parody v Pastiche 🤔

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

So is The Love Box in your Living Room a parody or a pastiche?

Find 3 examples that as evidence to support your position.

If we agree that The Love Box in your Living Room it is a REITERATION of the documentary work by Adam Curtis then it works as both a parody and a pastiche. In this sense, postmodernism works in terms of gestures, signs, re-imagining of work that is already recognised. However, the key question is whether this is just play? Or whether it is indicative of something else? Some more seismic and significant shifts in society?

Intertextuality: surface signs, gestures & play

BRICOLAGE is a useful term to apply to postmodernist texts as it

‘involves the rearrangment and juxtaposition of previously unconnected signs to produce new codes of meaning’

(Barker & Jane, 2016:237)

Similarly, INTERTEXTUALITY 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 other words . . .

. . . the concept that the meaning of a text does not reside in the text, but is produced by the reader in relation not only to the text in question, but also the complex network of texts invoked in the reading process.

See this source for link to Kristeva and post-structuralism

Postmodernism can therefore be understood (more than other creative movements) as deliberate, intended, self-conscious play (about play?), signs about signs, notes to notes? Often, this may be frivolous, trite, casual, surface, throw-away. It may even be ironic, joking, or literally, ‘just playing’. However, it is always a deliberate copy (of the old). Therefore, the old has been re-worked into something new, which clearly entails a recognition (a nod and a wink) to what it was and where it came from.

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