Key Words and definitions

-Faux TV

-Pastiche
An artistic work in a style that imitates/ pays homage to another work, artist, or period.

-Hyperreal 
An inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality. i.e. Disney Land

-Parody 
An imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect.

-Cyberspace
The notional environment in which communication over computer networks occurs.

-Metanarrative

-Surrealism
A 20th-century avant-garde movement in art and literature which sought to release the creative potential of the unconscious mind, for example by the irrational juxtaposition of images.

-Bricolage 
A work that is made from combining existing materials, independent of their original purpose.

-Intertextuality 
Making reference to a pre-exsisting text

-Simulacra
Something fake pretending to be real. i.e. Disney Land

-Faction

-Kitsch
Art, objects, or design considered to be in poor taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality, but sometimes appreciated in an ironic or knowing way. i.e. the barbie doll

-Spectacle

-Dystopia 
An imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.

Jean Baudrillard

Postmodernism celebrates the image rather than the real: style over substance
Baudrillard discusses blurring between real and not real.

Everything is a sign, a simulacra (pretending to be real). simulacra- go into pub made to look old, new pub, new decorations that look old. Simulacra= fake but pretending to be real. i.e. disney land.
According to Baudrilliard, nothing is real, everything is surface

The gulf war didn’t exist- Jean Baudrillard book

Hyperreal- so real it’s not real

In Madonna’s like a prayer video, religious metanarratives are broken. Jesus is a black man who is open to temptation, Madonna is sexualised and posing within a church, crosses are burned. Stigmata becomes an aesthetic.

Madonna

Ways Madonna uses postmodernism...

• Style over substance
• Intertextuality- Pastiche form mostly: i.e. Marilyn Monroe in Gentlemen prefer blondes
• Constantly changes style and image
• Good for inserting queer theory- her sexuality is something she always appears to be exploring
• Fractures metanarratives- Jean Francois Lyotard 
• Parodies traditional gender and sexual identities
• Embraces consumer culture

Consuming: the more you consume, the more it will improve your life. i.e. Buy this deodorant by David Beckham and you’ll be like him- get the girls.

Postmodernism and queer theory breaks down binary opposition- male vs female

Fixed gender identity-metanarrative is rejected- heterosexual man and woman

Postmodernism celebrates all sexualities 
Annie Lenox
Lady Gaga

Judith Butler was positive in her reapproapiriation of sexual identity. She writes that gender and sexuality are constantly in transition. 60s and 70s feminism argued that sexuality and gender are biological. Judith Butler argued that it was constantly moving/ shifted and it’s about performance (how you choose to perform your gender/ sexual identity).

Laura Mulvy 1975 book, wrote how women are there to be looked at and fetishised. Judith is more postmodern.

Madonna parodies female stereotypes and adopts identities that 'contradicts' her as a heterosexual female.

In postmodern society, people are not restricted to traditional gender identities. In true queer theory style, one could participate in a range of identities= lesbian heterosexual, heterosexual lesbian, etc.

‘Material Girl’ embraces consumer culture and is also a pastiche of Marilyn Monroe in the film ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’.

Madonna exposes femininity as a ‘masquerade’- something that’s not real.

Video reproduces the elements of blondness, sexuality and gold-digging in parody form.

She’s portrayed as ‘a more savvy’ monroe in contrast to the traditional nostalgic treatment of her as a ‘witless sex object’

Madonna mocks femininity as a ‘Meta masquerade’

Intro

Postmodernism is notoriously difficult to define.

To be successful in the exam, you need to think about what is historical (not within the past 5 years), what’s present and what the future holds for postmodernism.

What does postmodernism do...

• Generates interesting debate
• Interesting case studies 

Post (after) modernism. A development of modernism? the result? the rejection of?

Eras are defined by changes in art, theory and economic history. 

Postmodern Texts

• Black mirror (TV drama)
• The Simpsons
• Modern Family
• Black Swan
• Lady Gaga- Telephone + Marry The Night
• Jessie J- Price Tag
• The Truman Show (historical) 
• Madonna 
• Gorrliaz

What is Postmodernism?

-An attitude towards truth claims
-Jean Francois Lyotoird -Incrudaroty towards all Metanarratives ‘big story’ (suspicious of big stories)
-Interpretation
-Illegitimate child of modernism
-During the rise of modern science
-Modern though became old fashioned during postmodern age
-Intertextual references (postmodernism supports that there are no more original ideas)

FRACTURING OF THE METANARRATIVE 

Style over substance- Truman Show set- aesthetics more important than narrative

Question what is real and what isn't 

Terminology:

-Faux TV

-Pastiche

-Hyperreal 

-Parody 

-Cyberspace

-Metanarrative

-Surrealism 

-Bricolage 

-Intertextuality 

-Simulacra

-Faction 

-Kitsch

-Spectacle

-Dystopia