Postmodernism
Introduction
What is postmodernity and how is it incorporated into different forms of media? Postmodernism is a movement against modernism. It cannot always be defined as is many people often have different views on what it may be and it is often unclear. It is also a wide range term which is why its hard to define simply. However, it can be thought to be a late 20th-century style in the arts, architecture and criticism that represents a departure from modernism. Postmodernism is largely a reaction to the assumed certainty of scientific, or objective efforts to explain reality. This is why its hard to define as everyone has different values, cultures and lifestyles which alters their opinion on postmodernism and how they interpret things based on their own human reality. However, its main features can be seen across many different types of media such as television, film and music videos.
Film
Blade Runner, Pulp Fiction and Scream 4
A key postmodern text is the film Blade Runner (Ridley Scott 1982).It has the theme of postmodernism throughout and is clear through many different features. Firstly, it’s postmodern because it both represents and employs elements of the postmodern condition to texture its narrative. Also explored and utilised in Blade Runner are the strategies of quotation, pastiche, recycling, hyper reality and identity crisis. It’s apparent that the film is set in the future and this is because of the mise en scene such as the buildings and the new technology within the city. This is also clear because of the recycling in the film. This is a very modern idea that has now been introduced today so the film has predicted what will be around in the future. Blade Runner is an excellent example of pastiche with the layout of the city being the most dramatically visible and the connection of postmodernism to post industrialism is evident. There is also the concept that even though it seems to be set in the future, it could also be seen as going backwards in time even thought its meant to be set in 2019 Los Angeles. This thought explains that the city could be anywhere at any time. Hyper reality is another key feature of postmodernism in films and in Blade Runner as it is how the media dominate our perception of the world and how it’s more real than we can experience. This links with the distinction between human and machine and the Void-comp test to work out who is a replicant and who is human which also comes under identity crisis. Also in the opening scene we can identify virtual adverts persuading the humans to move to other planets, suggesting they will have a better life away from earth and have better experiences than earth can offer.
Baudrillard states that: “Another film often cited as ‘postmodern’ is Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner (1982), in which science, technology and progress are all questioned and shown in some way to have ‘failed’. The world in Blade Runner is polluted by industry and overcrowding; only the rich escape to the ‘off-worlds’. One of the key themes of the film is the ‘blurring’ of the differences between the real and the artificial, between the humans and the replicants. Increasingly it is no longer possible to be clear about what it means to be ‘human’”. This summarises all the main ideas as to why this film is postmodern as the storyline itself includes features of hyper reality and the mise en scene links to pastiche. Textually, Blade Runner uses quotes from many different film genres and film movements/periods. For example it lifts scenes directly out of older classics such as Metropolis (science fiction) and Mild red Pierce (film noir). This shows how the different genres are working together to create a new mixed genre that is postmodern in its own way for doing this.Also other pop culture references are used such as the New York skyline, the Pulp Fiction of Raymond Charles. On the other hand, some people believe that Blade Runner is far from being postmodern and that in fact Ridley Scott tried to shy away from a postmodern view in the film and instead Blade Runner was ‘a production of mainstream cinema only films with an independent sensibility are able to fully represent the disturbing post human . This is because the ideals of romantic love are central to patriarchal society’s needs’. This quote from Nick Lacey suggests that the film completely fails to represent postmodernism in the form of the human condition.
car at the traffic lights and turns to face him, as this resembles the scene in Psycho (1960, Alfred Hitchcock) when Marion’s boss crosses the street in front of her car. Another key postmodern feature in the film is hybridity. The tone of the film is disorienting in the way it clashes and mixes different kinds and levels of feeling. For example, when Vincent is killed absurdly whilst on the toilet reading a piece of pulp fiction. Also throughout the film there are various scenes with off-hand shootings where the killer doesn’t even look at the victim which shows how relaxed they are with behaviour like this and that it is normal in that society. Finally, the narrative structure is very disjointed. This is a key feature that makes the film postmodern as the story is constantly changing. It is argued that the films narrative is fragmented and disorienting in terms of time and space and therefore another reason it’s called postmodern. It works with micro-narratives, giving a fragmented sense of location and history. Tarantino fans favourite part about the narrative is the way that huge stretches of it are devoted to ‘trivial’ conversations e.g. foot massages and burgers. Overall, Pulp Fiction shows many different features throughout that make it postmodern; hybridity, pastiche, narrative structure and intertextuality. All of these cleverly tie in together to make the film good and also to get the message that Tarantino wanted across, the thought that they are watching numerous films in one.
Another feature of postmodernism is ‘the openness of the truly postmodern text’. However this does not apply to Blade runner as we are only shown the negative and ‘bad’ side of the upper class people in the future. An example of this in the film is the character Tyrell who owns large companies as we see throughout
For my final case study I have chosen Scream 4, the 2011 slasher film written by Kevin Williamson and directed by Wes Craven. The story is of a high school girl whose friends are being killed by the mysterious ‘ghostface’ until the end when she is almost killed too. This film is a perfect example of how horror movies can be postmodern as there are many of its features packed within the film and the previous ones before it. There are numerous links to the first Scream film throughout and therefore within itself already making it postmodern.
My second case study is Pulp Fiction (1994 Quentin Tarantino.) As the term postmodernism is very wide it can be applied to many different films and Pulp Fiction being one of them. Firstly intertextuality is a key postmodern feature in this film. A mix of different genres and themes can be found throughout the film such as gangsters, war, musical, romance and art-house. Tarantino also cross links to many of his other films such as The Assassin (1993) and Reservoir Dogs (1992). Travolta characters also lives a life that was expected of his character in Saturday night fever’s future, which signifies that he definitely intended to make these links. An example of intertextuality in the film is the scenes in the trendy diner ‘Jack Rabbit slims’ as it has many references to 1950’s stars and movies. Secondly, pastiche is used a lot throughout the film as it’s made up of many different storylines with completely different characters and genres borrowed from different films. A quote from Tarantino himself even shows that he admits to using pastiche in his films; ‘I always hope that if one million people see my movie, they see one million different movies.’ An example of this in the film is when Marcellus walks out in front of Butch’s
Straight away from the opening sequence we can classify the film as postmodern as its constant intertextuality to Scream 1 is apparent. The clips are all shown as if they are the actual movie, until we then realise they are actually from a film that two girls are watching. This happens 3 times and highlights that there’s films within the films and they are all following similar storylines and incidents involving the killer; ghost face. The same scene that is repeated in the different films being watched is of two girls home alone who then receive a phone call from a mysterious person. He then asked them the famous question ‘what’s your favourite scary movie?’ before going on to kill them. This then comes to life in Scream 4 with two high school girls, almost identical to Scream 4. During this opening sequence, two girls are even moaning about how predictable and postmodern the storyline is and therefore could suggest that Williamson deliberately did this and intended for it to be postmodern. I also noticed pastiche within the film. There are many links to other films of this genre for example in the opening sequence they reference Saw 4 which is half way through the set of films, signifying that people already understand what happens in the Saw films and what they are about . This directly links to Scream 4 too as this is the last film to date in the Scream collection so people are already aware of the traditional storyline it follows and also that the killer is always ghost face. Another memorable scene in the film that emphasises the feature of pastiche is when the characters themselves are all at the Stabathon where high school kids are
watching a series of slasher films together. As a group they all speak through the key features of a horror film and how to survive. All the main points they list have all been broken within the film for example; you never answer the phone or say ‘I’ll be right back’ which both happen in Scream 4 making this very contradictory. All the typical conventions of a horror movie are apparent throughout through iconography of masks, knifes etc and also through the locations, with the film starting with a girl in a isolated house. Even though they are all mocking the predictable Stab movie features, they are all used within the film as they are living in the same storyline. The second feature that’s clear within the film is the self-referential. The whole Scream sequel relies on the thought that its audience knows the key conventions of horror films and in particular the Scream films for it to be most effective. Therefore they play on the audience’s reactions and thoughts to make them try and predict future events and attacks, but also incorporate humour and still try and make it frightening at the same time. Thirdly, intertextuality plays a huge part in the film as there are constant links to other films in the horror/ slasher genre. Right at the beginning of the first Scream film, ghost face questions Casey on her knowledge of horror films and this shows how the character is aware of what’s going on around them and that he is part of a horror story. Also when Casey is asked about another set of horror films (Nightmare on Elm Street) she replies with ‘the first one was alright but the sequel sucked’. This continues in Scream 4 in the scene where Charlie is tied to the chair and Kirby has to answer a series of questions related to the horror genre in order to save his life. During this numerous films are listed such as ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’ and ‘Prom Night’ which is clearly identifying similar films that can also be related to Scream. This highlight’s how at this point in the film the characters realise they are part of a horror story themselves and start thinking back to other horror films in order to beat the killer. Linking back again to when the high school kids talk through the rules of horror movies, they are linking this to the imaginary film ‘Stab’ as they are all watching the film which shows how they are referring to similar films within the genre and knows how predictable they all are and how they are similar to Scream and the previous events that have happened so far in the film. This links with the Hyperdermic needle theory as the audience has been injected with this view on horror films so they now know all the typical clichés and what to expect. In conclusion, the whole Scream series follows the same features and therefore the audience will be able to predict what happens. All the postmodern features help to do this for example iconography and intertextuality. Scream 4 is probably the most postmodern of all of them as it links back to the previous films and follows the similar storyline with its own twist
Music Video’s
Material Girl and Telephone
I have chosen the video ‘Material Girl’ as it includes many elements which lead me to believe that it is postmodern. The first element I have noticed is pastiche as it’s clearly present in this video. Madonna clearly references Marilyn Monroe, in the form of copying a scene from the film ‘Gentlemen prefer blondes’. In this film, Monroe sings the song ‘Diamond’s are a girl’s best friend’, to which Madonna copies the setting and costume. This signifies that she has a lot of respect for Marilyn Monroe as she was one of the best actress’ of her time and Madonna is using this video as almost a tribute to her. Secondly there’s the meta-narrative. Throughout the video we see that a separate narrative is present, as well as the narrative of the song itself. This is apparent at the beginning of the video, were we see two directors looking at a clip of Madonna’s video and discussing her involvement in one of their new films. The video constantly cuts to scenes of her with the directors and follows her journey, creating a separate story to the one in the song. This keeps us interested and also shows a lot of meaning behind the song and that a lot of thought has gone into the creation of the video. Finally, there’s a lot of self reference throughout. The theme of the song and the title ‘Material Girl’ symbolises that Madonna is aware of her representation in the media at this particular time and is almost mocking them by embracing the image. Throughout her career Madonna has been classified as many different personalities but Material Girl highlights that she is mocking the media for their portrayal of her and that in fact she is far from this look. Overall this video displays several characteristics that are examples of the post modernist movement as its thought to be the first video were Madonna was classed as being postmodern and tested the boundaries. My second case study is Lady Gaga’s Telephone is another music video that is very postmodern and contains numerous different features. Firstly, pastiche. The video has it in spades. It references other forms of media (Tarantino, exploitation films, Thelma & Louise) left and right, while parodying none of them. This is because parody relies on an underlying normative standard, which postmodernism categorically rejects. Instead it merely shows the audience a barrage of media, almost a celebration of how clever the director is for cramming so many references into a single video. Secondly, consumerism. The product placement is obvious, but it is not portrayed as humorous. The camera lingers too long on each product, and the video knows it, but it still manages to avoid parody. Rather, the video uses these consumer images as an integral part of its aesthetic without any comment on their social context.
Another feature noticeable is Self-reference. The blatant product placement shows self-awareness in the video, but this particular brand of ironic detachment harms the video’s ability to make any sort of overall message on its own. Instead it implies that celebrating consumer culture is fine as long as we’re appropriately ironic about it, but this is a largely unintended consequence of the video’s aesthetic. We can also see Appropriation of identity-based struggle. Lady Gaga is interesting for turning the male gaze back on men, and for portraying women as subjects rather than objects in her videos. However, the resistance to power on Lady Gaga and Beyonce’s part is purely individual and brief (it’s very telling that Lady Gaga is bailed out of prison rather than escaping) Behind this initial layer of feminism there is still an individuated desire to become rich, given that Lady Gaga was saved from prison by money. She maintains her glamorous image inside and outside the prison’s walls, an implicit message that “excessive mate realism is empowering to women, somehow,” as Alyx Vesey observed. Therefore her kind of feminism is integrated neatly into the agenda of neoliberals, who love to talk about glass ceilings being shattered while heaping disdain on poor women.
sic videos to fantasy, romantic comedy, and also cartoons. Parody is included a lot within the show as they often mimic previous creations. This can be very subtle for the audience and helps them to familiarise themselves with these scenarios that are being imitated. The audience then appreciate these scenes as they can relate to something and therefore gain more interest in the show in general. The show itself acts against modernism a lot, which in itself makes it postmodern. This is because postmodernism acts against logic and reasoning. The Mighty Boosh does this by making a surreal world that’s very spontaneous and often has a very deep hidden meaning which is not obvious to everyone. The final feature I noticed was eclecticism. The Mighty Boosh has many influences which have made their characters and storylines. There is no fixed genre in which influences them the most and it ranges from fantasy to science fiction. This shows how it’s not dedicated to one specific genre and can easily be influenced by an eclectic mix of genres and styles. Overall I think The Mighty Boosh is a great case study as there are numerous features that suggest to us it’s postmodern.
Finally there’s Incredulity towards metanarratives. Lyotard’s famous description of the postmodern condition applies even here, as it’s difficult to find an overall message or narrative in the video. There is a sequence of events interspersed with pop culture references and product placement, but little else.
For my own television case study I have chosen Family Guy. It’s very postmodern and includes numerous different features of postmodernism.
Television
The Mighty Boosh and Family Guy My group’s case study is on the TV show, The Mighty Boosh. The Mighty Boosh is a British comedy written by and starring comedians Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding. The Mighty Boosh has many different features that make it postmodern, such as being based around celebrity culture, fashion and what we see in the media. The two main characters are constantly searching for fame via numerous occupations. The main character himself, Vince is very postmodern, especially in the way he looks. The show is based completely on popular culture; however there are times that high art is used and regenerated as pop culture. We see this throughout as Vince is very much into pop culture and Howard is based around high art. Throughout the series we see these two come together and merge as one at some points. Another key postmodern feature in the show is self reflectivity. This is apparent when Vince and Howard directly address the audience and reference the show whilst doing this. They almost step out of the show and become part of the audience. This is done by them introducing the show sometimes or even discussing events in the show. There is also bricolage within the show. This is because Noel Fielding plays Vince Noir, as well as numerous smaller roles within the show. Therefore he is being used to create a range of different characters all within the one show. The use of bricolage throughout allows the show to reference many different genres, from mu-
Family Guy includes many references from popular culture. The main idea of the show is a reference to the very popular television genre; family sitcom. In a typical family sitcom, the story revolves around a nuclear family comprised of a husband, wife, and a couple of children. The story for each episode is stand-alone, and is most commonly about the family’s mis-happenings with each other, their friends, or neighbours. In the end, the problem is solved and the family live on happily to suffer the next episode. The key structure of family guy includes the storyline with numerous flashbacks in between and this happens in every episode. The show has become famous for this structure and this is what highlights its spontaneous side which is seen as humorous. Family guy is very famous for its spontaneous flashbacks. These often start with ‘I remember when...’ or ‘It’s like the time...’ and then lead on to reference another time in their life. These flashbacks commonly include references to other texts, brands, celebrities and also other shows which are similar. An example of this is at the end of one episode when the characters have been time travelling, they end the episode by saying ‘at least everything is back to normal now’. Just as they say this, a character from a similar show ‘American Dad’ walks in, referencing the show. This shows how Family Guy are expecting their audience to know the character as it’s a similar show so will have a similar target audience to Family Guy. They also have numerous guest appearances from celebrities such as OJ Simpson and Marilyn Manson. These celebrities are often mocked and jokes are used that refer to their real life experiences, highlighting that the show are trying to engage with their audience by joking about real life matters and stories. Family Guy blurs boundaries of what is real and what’s not a lot. They include many references to real life celebrities and stories which make us believe the family are meant to be living in a realistic world like we do. However, the show also includes elements of hyper reality by using things such as time machines to travel to
different times and also dimensions. The idea of Stewie being able to talk to Brian the dog is unrealistic in the normal world which makes us believe the show is far from normal. Having a talking dog in itself would not normally be possible so the show is definitely blurring the boundaries between real and fake. Also the reference’s the show makes to different elements of the real world suggests that it is more real than we think. Examples of these references are Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Kiss and CoolAid. As each Family Guy differs from the next and has no link usually, they tend to do parody episodes mocking other forms of media such as popular films and shows. Their most memorable example of this was when they replicated the Star Wars trilogy. They kept the same storyline but used their own characters and added the Family Guy structure to it with the constant flashbacks. They also referenced the film a lot and mentioned facts that only hardcore star wars fans would know. This highlights how they are targeting their audience. Another example of parody in the show is when they created an episode based around the film Charlie and the chocolate factory. They copied the general storyline, some shots and also the music to make sure the audience made a clear link between the two, however made it their own by including well known jokes from Family Guy and once again the flashbacks. Family Guy is famous for mocking other shows and people in general. In the more recent series, they’ve started to mock themselves and highlight on their common traits. They also reference their channel Fox a lot in a negative way that comes across as joking. They mention it a lot when they say that Fox cancelled the show after the first series and this is mocking the station as now Family Guy is a huge success with very high viewings. They also reference themselves a lot more now in newer episodes. An example of this is when they go back into the past and watch in on the house. They realize that the family often sits their and pauses and this is because they then edit flashbacks in on top . This highlights the surreal humor Family Guy has as they know what they commonly do and what they may be criticized for. By mocking themselves, they’re showing the audience that they don’t take it too seriously and can also laugh at themselves not just other shows. Overall, I think all of these features make the show very postmodern. Each of them can be found in every episode and occur regularly. It’s the spontaneous humour that people enjoy in the show and that’s what makes it a successful postmodern show. Shows like this are what are making audience find postmodern programmes more enjoyable and are encouraging more to now be created.
Conclusion The future of postmodernism In conclusion, all of my case studys are good examples of postmodern texts and would all be suitable to use in the exam as they can easily be explained. In the future, I predict that postmodern media will become much mroe popular as people will start to understand the humour behind it and enjoy it more. It also allows creators to have more freedom and therefore come up with new and interesting concepts.