Postmodern Reality

1. Postmodern Reality
by Louise Douse
Week5
UnderstandingPerformance

2. How has the
postmodern condition
been theorised?
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 Jean Baudrillard French
Philosopher
“Disneyland is presented as
imaginary in order to make us
believe the rest is real, when in
fact all of Los Angeles and the
America surrounding it are no
longer real, but of the order of the
hyperreal and of simulation.”
Simulations (1983)

3. Simulation
 Mass media and popular culture are the most important cultural
institutions
 Media no longer holds a mirror to society
 Reality has become constructed by mass media – we are living in a post-
truth world
 Capitalism and the economy
 Establish production in the age of modernity – infrastructure, work ethic,
conditions
 Postmodernity sees the need for consumption and leisure
 Hence the need for media, advertising, mass communication
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4. What are the characteristics/stylistic
features of Postmodernism?
 FRAGMENTATION - conscious highlighting of the discontinuous,
disparate elements of the structure
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5. What are the characteristics/stylistic
features of Postmodernism?
 NON-LINEARITY -events portrayed in a non-chronological manner.
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6. Bibiography
 Elam, K. (2002) The semiotics of theatre and drama. London: Routledge.
 Pavis, P. (2003) Analyzing performance: theater, dance, and film. Ann Arbor: University of
Michigan Press.
 Preson-Dunlop,V. & Sanchez-Colberg, A. (2010) Dance and the performative: a
choreological perspective: Laban and beyond. London: Dance Books.
 Storey, J. (2006) Cultural theory and popular culture: an introduction. Harlow: Pearson
Prentice Hall.
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