1.
Postmodernism lesson 1
L/O:
In this lesson you will be able to …..
Introduce to the basic ideas about Postmodernism and consider it's origins
Address basic themes and concepts that make something Postmodern
Consider the wider effects of Postmodernism on yourself
Address assessment objectives and exam criteria

2.
Starter
• What do we know about postmodernism?
• Where have you come across is before?
• Is it an easy concept to understand?

3.
Previous exam questions
• Look up on OCR website for h/w…

4.
POSTMODERNISM!
Ism's: A History
Artistic/Cultural Movements (17th-
21st Century)

5.
Ism's: A History
Artistic/Cultural Movements (17th-21st Century)
BAROQUE

6.
Ism's: A History
Artistic/Cultural Movements (17th-21st Century)
ROMANTIC

7.
Ism's: A History
Artistic/Cultural Movements (17th-21st Century)
REALISM

8.
Ism's: A History
Artistic/Cultural Movements (17th-21st Century)
MODERN

9.
Ism's: A History
Artistic/Cultural Movements (17th-21st Century)
POSTMODERN

10.
Key Concept: Postmodernism
• Postmodernism is a very big and complicated concept to get
your head round, but in its simplest form it attempts to
analyse society and culture now.
• It is the central idea behind new fashion, music and film - put
simply postmodernists believes that artistic creativity and
"newness" can no longer happen as in today's society
everything has been done?

11.
Some Key points
• Inability to create anything new
• Experimentation with existing forms and
conventions
• Loss of the "real"
• General pessimism and lack of purpose
• Technology increasing important in social
interaction

12.
Postmodern Media
• Watch the following clip from "Family Guy
Super-Griffins"
• What Postmodern elements are evident?
• http://krankr.com/clip/videos.php/photo/3441/Television/Family_Guy_Super_Griffins//sortby/s/sorttime/9999/way/desc

13.
Postmodern elements
• Generic conventions and hybridity
• Popular culture references (Nsync)
• Stewie and Brian's ability to talk
• Intertextuality
• Formal confusion - news report
• Reality vs hypereality
• Who's Gene Charlott?
• Intertextual references from Family Guy Wiki

14.
The scene refers to.........
"The Facts of Life"
long running sitcom that continued the story of
Edna Garret - the housemaid from Different Strokes
(referenced 6 times)
"Gene Shalit"
The film and book critic on NBC's The Today Show.
He is known for his frequent use of puns, his
oversized handlebar moustache, and for wearing
colorful bowties. (referenced twice)

15.
What makes something
Postmodern?

16.
Generic Hybridisation
• Put simply this is when a text
mixes the elements of two or
more genres together
• Example: “Shaun of the Dead”
• Suggests that you cannot
create anything new anymore?

17.
Intertextuality
• This is when a text
makes deliberate
references to other
media texts by
stealing bits of it
• Example: “The
Simpsons” (Sopranos)
• Possibly suggests that we constantly repeat rather than create new things?
• Intertextuality is the shaping of texts' meanings by other texts. It can refer to an author’s
borrowing and transformation of a prior text or to a reader’s referencing of one text in
reading another.

18.
Intertextuality
Intertextuality is the shaping of texts'
meanings by other texts.
It can refer to an author’s borrowing and
transformation of a prior text or to a
reader’s referencing of one text in
reading another.

19.
Satire
Pastiche
Intertextuality
Homage Parody

20.
Pastiche
• A pastiche is a work of art, literature, film, music or
architecture that closely imitates the work of a previous
artist, usually distinguished from parody in the sense that it
celebrates rather than mocks the work it imitates.
• A medley of various ingredients... Denotes a technique
using a generally light hearted, tongue-in-cheek imitation
of another’s style. Although it is jocular (humorous), it is
respectful (unlike parody).
• Alternately, a pastiche may be a hodge-podge of parts
derived from the original work of others.

21.
• Pastiche is prominent in popular culture.
• Many genre pieces, particularly in fantasy, are essentially pastiches.
• George Lucas’ Star Wars series is often considered to be a pastiche of
traditional science fiction television serials or radio shows.
• They can be seen as a pastiche of 1930s science fiction cliffhanger serials
like Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers. Some would argue that it blends
elements of samurai, American western, and sci-fi film genres.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh8KVG8j68I flash
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjNlyWxwCac buck rogers

22.
The films of Quentin Tarantino are often
described as pastiches, with their
mixing and blurring of generic
conventions and boundaries.
Kill Bill (2003) pays tribute to (or
perhaps imitates) numerous genres;
(next slide)
-though some say his films are more of
a homage.

23.
Kill Bill (2003) pays tribute to (or perhaps imitates) numerous genres;
Kung fu / martial arts
& Japanese anime
Western films
-pulp novels/comics
(themes of
adventure/horror)
blaxploitation
(70’s)
grindhouse
(venues that showed exploitation
films….showed pornographic/high sex,
slasher horror or dubbed martial arts films)

24.
Kung fu / martial arts
& Japanese anime
Western films
blaxploitation
(70’s)
grindhouse
(venues that showed exploitation
films….showed pornographic/high sex,
slasher horror or dubbed martial arts films)

25.
Homage
• Mixing and blurring of generic conventions and
boundaries.
• Film or director pays tribute (some believe
imitates) to previous distinctive styles/genres
• Homage is generally used to mean any public
show of respect to someone to whom you feel
indebted (worthy of dedication). In this sense, a
reference within a creative work to someone who
greatly influenced the artist would be a homage

26.
Homage example
• Johnathan Glazer’s music video for Blur’s The
Universal paid homage to Stanley Kubrick’s
film Clockwork Orange).

27.
Homage Example
• ChinatownWhen Nicholas has • a reference to Chinatown's
discovered the secret of "Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown"
Sandford and is trying to get
Danny to help him take the
village down, Danny says
"Forget it Nicholas, It's Sandford"

28.
Parody
• A parody (also called spoof), is an imitative
work created to mock, comment on or
trivialise an original work, its subject, author,
style, or some other target, by means
of satiric or ironic imitation.
• Most of the humour in recent parodies of film
genres is based on our familiarity with formula
plots, conventions and characters.

29.
Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Duchamp's parody of the
Vinci. Original painting from Mona Lisa adds a goatee
circa 1503 – 1507. and moustache.

30.
Parody in Duchamp (mona lisa)
• Marcel Duchamp's Dadaist painting LHOOQ parodies DaVinci's Mona Lisa
by marring it with a goatee and moustache. In keeping with his Dadist
practices, which called artistic conventions and aesthetic assumptions into
question, DuChamp’s paired his visual parody with a low pun; in French,
"L.H.O.O.Q." sounds like an idiom describing women who sexually tease
men: "elle a chaud au cul," or "she is hot in the ass."

31.
Parody & genre (western)
• Some genre theorists see parody as a natural
development in the life cycle of any genre.
• Such theorists note that Western movies, for example,
after the classic stage defined the conventions of the
genre, underwent a parody stage, in which those
same conventions were ridiculed and critiqued.
• Because audiences had seen these classic Westerns,
they had expectations for new Westerns, and when
these expectations were subverted, the audience
laughed.

32.
Parody Examples
• Films like Scary Movie, Not Another Teen Movie and Team America: World Police first build on
our habitual expectations of their genre and then violate them. Because each of these films
incorporates the plot, characters & conventions of dozens of films, they can be helpful in
studying the genres they parody.

33.
Satire
Satire is a technique in which a
target is held up for merciless
ridicule. Because satire often
combines anger and humour it
can be profoundly disturbing -
because it is essentially ironic &
sarcastic - it is often
misunderstood.
Although satire is usually witty,
and often very funny, the primary
purpose of satire is not primarily
humour but criticism of an
individual or a group in a witty
manner.

34.
Self Reflexivity
I feel like I’ve been
wearing the same
• This is when a
clothes for 10 “text” points out
Years!
to the audience
that it is a “text”.
This level of self
awareness points
to how “texts”
are constructed
• “Example: “The Simpsons”

35.
Juxtaposition
• This is when a collection of opposing elements
all mix together to try and make sense.
• Example: “The Mighty Boosh”
This can often reflect a
confusing a world where
things don’t make any
sense

36.
Hyperreality
• Because of all the self-
reflexivity, intertextuality etc,
texts become detached from
anything real. This creates a
hyperreal state where reality
is altered and detached from
anything “real”
• Example: “The Matrix”

37.
High art/culture
Low art/culture
LOW HIGH
Low culture is a derogatory term for popular culture ; everything in High culture is a term referring to the "best of breed" (from some
society that has mass appeal. elitist viewpoint) cultural products. What falls in this category is
Low culture is a term for some forms of popular culture that that defined by the most powerful sections of society, i.e. its social,
have mass appeal. political, economic and intellectual elite.
Take away meals Shakespeare
Gossip magazines Classic art………mona lisa……Picasso…….
Best selling books such as ‘50 shades of Grey’ Classic literature
Sports such as basketball and football Classic music ………..such as the Opera
Banksy Theatre

38.
Hybrids of high/low
• The line between high and low art is very
blurred in postmodernism
Producing text like this:
Why?

39.
How to create new things in an
Postmodern World
Adaptation Adaptation + Self-reflexivity
Hybridisation
Action
+
Romance?

40.
HYBRID JUXTAPOSTION BRICOLAGE
REALITY TV SHOWS
(doc+game
show+soap) to form
new meaning/conventions
+
= gay?

41.
• Can you think of two genres that have not
been mixed already?
• What/who decides what works well
together?

42.
How to spot a Postmodern Media
Text
• Run though the attached hand-out and find examples of a
Postmodern text from the following categories:
• Music
• Fashion
• Video Games
QUESTIONS (write in book)
• Consumer Electronics
• Sport • Why do Postmodern texts exists?
• Toys • What do they say about the world we live in?
• What are the possible long term effects of
postmodernism?

43.
Postmodernism WIKI
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmodernism
• If you want to do more reading……

44.
Summary of POMO Key terms
• Non linear narratives
• High/low art hybrids
• Self reflexivity
• Artificialness
• Dystopian narratives (& pessimism)
• Non realism
• Hyperreality
• Voyerism GREEN AMBER RED
(confident) (somewhat (not confident)
• Nostalgia
confident)
• Intertextuality
– Homage
– Pastiche
– Parody
• Hybridisation/hybrids
• Bricolage
• Juxtaposition

45.
Homework
Set: Thur/Fri Mar 15
Due: Mon Mar 18
• REVISE ALL KEY TERMS/this powerpoint
• Bring to next week's lesson something you
believe to be Postmodern. (nothing from this powerpoint)
• Be prepared to talk about why you brought it
and why you think it is Postmodern?
(you can create a Powerpoint or just write down on A3)