POSTMODERNISM POSTMODERNISM POSTMODERNISM POSTMODERNISM Introducing… Everything is beautiful. Pop is everything. –Andy Warhol POSTMODERNISM MARILYN MONROE Andy Warhol (1962) POSTMODERNISM

Modernity Postmodernity Urbanization Age of Literacy The universal subject (alienation of the modern subject) Multiculturalism (voice of“the other”) Industrialization / Machine Age; Bourgeois Age (power based in Capitalism) Deindustrialization; Multinational corporatism Urbanization Suburbanization Nationalism; colonialism / imperialism Globalism; decolonization Age of Literacy Image culture / Society of the spectacle

Tenets of Postmodernism Extreme self-reflexivity: objectification of structure; artist/author reflects upon own processes of creation pomos more so than mods more playful, irreverant  Examples: The Scream series of movies has characters debating the generic rules behind the horror film. Self-reflexivity: a term applied to literary works that openly reflect upon their own processes of artful composition. Such self‐referentiality is frequently found in modern works of fiction that repeatedly refer to their own fictional status (see metafiction). The narrator in such works, and in their earlier equivalents such as Sterne's Tristram Shandy (1759–67), is sometimes called a ‘self‐conscious narrator’. Self‐reflexivity may also be found often in poetry. In postmodern architecture, this effect is achieved by keeping visible internal structures and engineering elements (pipes, support beams, building materials, etc.) Frank Gehry, Nationale-Nederlanden Building

Tenets of Postmodernism 2) irony and parody  sense of playfulness Connected to the former point, is the tendency of postmodern artists, theorists, and culture to be playful or parodic. (Warhol and Lichtenstein are, again, good examples.) Pop culture and media advertising abound with examples; indeed, shows or films will often step outside of mimetic representation altogether in order to parody themselves in mid-stride. DROWNING GIRL Roy Lichtenstein (1963)

Tenets of Postmodernism A breakdown between high and low cultural forms. Modernism: focus upon “high” art Pomo: embraces both “high” and “low” arts (like comic books) Pomos often employ pop and mass-produced objects in more immediately understandable ways, even if their goals are still often complex (eg. Andy Warhol's commentary on mass production and on the commercial aspects of "high" art through the exact reproduction of a set of Cambell's Soup cans ). 200 Campbell’s Soup Cans Andy Warhol (1962)

“BINARIES & AMBIGUITIES” WITH SPOON BOY AND BANANA Binaries of modernism (black vs. white) become AMBIGUITIES in postmodernism (GRAY). “The erosion of the older distinction between high culture and so-called mass or popular culture.” –Frederic Jameson DOWN WITH HIERARCHIES! EVERYTHING IS AMBIGUOUS! Mods = universal truth Pomos = no such thing

Tenets of Postmodernism 4) Nostalgia: - Postmodernists and postmodern culture tend to be especially fascinated with styles and fashions from the past. - Often use completely out of their original context, and in juxtaposition (pastiche). - Examples: recycled TV shows of the past that are then given new life on the big screen (Scooby-Doo, Charlie's Angels, and so on). - May be a symptom of our loss of a connection with the past…. Modernists interested in creating an original form.

Tenets of Postmodernism Visuality (visuals, pictures) vs. temporality (linear time) 5) - Gravitation towards visual forms, as in the "cartoons" of Roy Lichtenstein or Art Spiegelman's Maus. - A general breakdown in narrative linearity and temporality. Many point to the style of MTV videos as a good example. - Simulacrum: something that replaces reality with its representation  leads us to the loss of all connection to reality or history.  fascination with reality television.  the line separating reality and representation has broken down (Wag the Dog, Dark City, the Matrix, the Truman Show, etc.).

Illusions of individuality “The transformation of reality into images…” –Frederic Jameson Illusions of individuality Sense of fragmentation and decentered self;  multiple, conflicting identities. Hyper-reality, image saturation, simulacra seem more powerful than the "real"; images and texts with no prior "original".  "As seen on TV" and "as seen on MTV" are more powerful than unmediated experience. (HYPER)REALITY “The Treachery of Images” (1929) Surface/aesthetic (pomo) more important than depth (mod) RENÉ MAGRITTE

It’s Pomo… You know, Post-modern… Weird for the sake of weird. (Episode “Homer the Moe”) Questions of truth and subjectivity first proposed in Modernism, gave rise to the belief in multiple truths and multiple subjectivities in Postmodernism.

Tenets of Postmodernism 7) Disorientation: Pomo works attempt to disorient the subject in time and space.  alternating narrators (Faulkner)  fragmented chronology (Vonnegut) Dr. Who

Tenets of Postmodernism 6) Late capitalism: a general sense that the world has been so taken over by the values of capitalist acquisition that alternatives no longer exist.  Predominance of paranoia narratives in pop culture (Bladerunner, X-Files, the Matrix, Minority Report).  Aided by advancements in technology, especially surveillance technology  the sense that we are always being watched. Progress does not = positive

Tenets of Postmodernism 8) Secondary Orality: reliance of a largely functionally illiterate society upon oral media sources for information (TV, radio, film, etc.)  reversal: literacy rates had been rising steadily from the introduction of print through the modern period, but postmodern society has seen a drastic reversal in this trend -- pomo culture still relies on print to create these media outlets (hence the term secondary orality); however, increasingly only a professional, well-educated class has access to full print- and computer-literacy. An ever larger percentage of the population merely ingests orally the media that is being produced (passive response).