Postmodernism can be defined as a rejection of the idea that there are certain unequivocal truths or grand narratives (such as capitalism, faith or science) and as a belief that there are multiple ways of understanding anything, whether it be it culture, philosophy, art, literature, films, etc, or even television... Television reflects the mass-produced society we live in and certain shows exhibit many of the archetypes of postmodernism that have become prevalent in other art forms. Postmodernism can be useful for understanding contemporary television it can help us to relate to the ever-changing world we live in. Television shows like ABC’s Lost (ABC, 2004-2010) dabble in matters of intertextuality, questioning of grand narratives and, amongst others, a manipulation of time through use of flashbacks, flash-forwards and, uniquely to Lost, the flash-sideways.
The television show Lost displays many of the key traits found in postmodernism works. The show follows the lives of survivors of a plane crash on a mysterious island somewhere in the south pacific. There, they must negotiate an unknown monster, an unpredictable group of prior occupants, strange, other worldly inhabitants, polar bears and each other, as they attempt to survive and attract rescue. In this basic synopsis of show it is clear that the show incorporates a large degree of generic hybridity, from the show’s outset it has exhibited elements of science-fiction, mystery, drama and the action-adventure genre. This is even prevalent in the show’s advertising, the varying genres that show exhibits can be found in an early trailer for the show’s first season that originally aired on Channel 4 in 2005, directed by surrealist artist David LaChapelle. The trailer features th...
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...tives through questioning of absolute truths such as established fact (science) and faith, intertextuality through a mass of references, manipulation of time through a non-linear narrative and generic hybridity through the show’s complex layers.
Works Cited
• Barthes, R (1977). Image Music Text. 14th ed. London: Fontana Press. p.146.
• McCarthy, E. (2008). 15 Questions for Lost Bosses Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse—and 40 Revealing Answers!. Available: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/digital/4260693. Last accessed 8th April 2014.
• Nelson, R. (2009). Modernism and Postmodernism in Television Drama. In: Creeber, G Televisions: An Introduction to Studying Televsion. 2nd ed. London: British Film Institute . p.90.
• Obara, C. (2014). LOST Paleyfest Reunion Panel 2014. Available: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D6-y7Dtby4. Last accessed 6th April 2014.
5 Feb 2014. Fiske, John. The. Television Culture. London: Methuen & Co. Ltd, 1987: Ch. 78.
The postmodern cinema emerged in the 80s and 90s as a powerfully creative force in Hollywood film-making, helping to form the historic convergence of technology, media culture and consumerism. Departing from the modernist cultural tradition grounded in the faith in historical progress, the norms of industrial society and the Enlightenment, the postmodern film is defined by its disjointed narratives, images of chaos, random violence, a dark view of the human state, death of the hero and the emphasis on technique over content. The postmodernist film accomplishes that by acquiring forms and styles from the traditional methods and mixing them together or decorating them. Thus, the postmodern film challenges the “modern” and the modernist cinema along with its inclinations. It also attempts to transform the mainstream conventions of characterization, narrative and suppresses the audience suspension of disbelief. The postmodern cinema often rejects modernist conventions by manipulating and maneuvering with conventions such as space, time and story-telling. Furthermore, it rejects the traditional “grand-narratives” and totalizing forms such as war, history, love and utopian visions of reality. Instead, it is heavily aimed to create constructed fictions and subjective idealisms.
...because it is so widespread. A particularly important problem has to do with the fact that the concept of intertextuality appears to be infinitely expandable.” (Intertextuality Revisited: Dialogues and Negotiations in Media Studies, Gunhild Agger) Intertextuality describes how many shows are all interconnected with one another and go hand in hand with character development. LOST can draw many of its background from Gilligan’s Island and even from Lord of the flies; both groups are trapped on an island and while one is comedic, Lord of the Flies characters must face the savagery within themselves.
In his work, A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory, he suggests that genres are an industry and audience practice meant to organize fan practices, viewing practices, and everyday conversations and to sort television’s vast array of textual options. As such, genre is a culturally constructed textual category, not a textual component. Genres emerge from intertextual relations between multiple texts and through cultural practices. Thus, as a show defined and labeled as a member of the parody genre, Documentary Now! is culturally recognized and defined as an explicitly intertextual televisual text, which is particularly significant because each genre has its own common sense rules that viewers internalize to make sense of future texts, ultimately having a direct effect on how the texts are consumed and understood. However, Mittell’s insistence of genre as fluid and based on cultural context and intertextual knowledge, also allows other generic categories to define Documentary Now!.
The success of the film Amelie, also known in France as Le Fabuleux desin d'Amélie Poulain directed by Jean Pierre-Jeunet, can be attributed to both the vision of the director and brilliant writing of the screenplay. This is a film which takes place around the year 1997 a day after the incident of Princess Diana's death is televised all around the world. We are then guided through the life of Amelie Poulin (Audrey Tautou) who is trying to find meaning in her life by doing good deeds for others around her. Amelie is a film which was made in the modern society of France, but one of the elements that makes this a postmodern film is its tendency to look back at past times, be retrospective of modernism in our society and build an image of it. Postmodernism is to be understood as a movement beyond modernism which is nonetheless able to make use of modernism techniques and conventions as one set of stylistic choices amongst others. By analyzing Jean-Pierre Jeunet’s 2001 ward-winning film Amelie, we will identify the presence of many underlying motifs in both the narrative and the characterization of the film when using influential theorists such as Frederic Jameson and Jean Baudrillard’s concepts on postmodernism.
Postmodernism is a vague term that can describe a variety of disciplines that include, architecture, art, music, film, fashion, literature…etc. (Klages). In the case of “Videotape”, postmodern literature would be the main focus or area of study. This type of literature emerged in the era that succeeded World War II and relies heavily on the use of techniques such as, fragmentation, the creation of paradoxes, and questionable protagonists. Furthermore, postmodern literature also exudes ambiguity and critical thinking where the focus is mainly on the reader and his/her experience of the work rather than the content and form. Building upon that, the selected passag...
Up until recently television has been the most prominent medium of entertainment and information in our lives. Nothing could beat Saturday morning cartoons, the six o'clock news and zoning out from the world by the distractions of prime time sitcoms. It is all of these things and more that formed television into what was thought to be the ultimate entertainment medium, that is, up until now. Television in the twenty-first century is not the television our parents watched or in fact what we watched as children. Today’s generation are no longer satisfied with the traditional television experience. Today’s audience no longer has to follow the network’s predetermined schedule nor is television the one dimensional experience it used to be. Viewers no longer need to schedule a fixed time in order to gather information or watch their favourite show (Smith 5). They can record it with the push of the DVR (Digital Video Recording) button or watch it on a device and obtain background information via the Internet. In addition, viewers now have the opportunity to interact with, share, and produce their own material from their favourite show (5). In order to not lose the authenticity of television, media theorists have created transmedia. This new twist on television gives the user more control and more involvement than ever before. The concept has been termed as transmedia storytelling. The online journal Infoline defines transmedia storytelling in its January 2014 issue as “social, mobile, accessible and re-playable.” Originally coined in the 1990’s it was not until 2003 when Henry Jenkins, a professor of communications at the University of Southern California, wrote his article “Transmedia Storytelling” that the term began being ...
Central idea: So now for the next 5 or so minutes, I will talk about the Bermuda Triangle.
Vande Berg, L.R., Wenner, L.A., & Gronbeck, B. E. (1998). Critical Approaches to Television. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
The emergence of digital technologies coincides with the rise of postmodernist films, videos, and audio art. Postmodernism literally means “after” or “beyond” modernism. Whereas modernist art emphasizes the individual artist’s self-expression and the purity of artistic form, postmodernist art is anything but pure. Postmodern approaches to production could feature the following:
Originally published in Cinema Journal 40, No. 3, Spring 2001, Jason Mittell’s “A Cultural Approach to Television Genre Theory” conceives of television genre as a cultural category rather than merely a textual component. In the decade since the original publishing of the article, television has evolved out of the multi-channel era and into the post-network era. In this new television landscape, genres are no longer a fixed entity1, and there is great academic potential in the in the study of television genres. The text, Thinking Outside the Box: A Contemporary Television Genre Reader, aims to explore and analyze genre in the current television landscape, and the Mittell article, republished in the book, serves as an entry point to such scholarship.
In the 1950s, authors tended to follow common themes, these themes were summed up in an art called postmodernism. Postmodernism took place after the Cold War, themes changed drastically, and boundaries were broken down. Postmodern authors defined themselves by “avoiding traditional closure of themes or situations” (Postmodernism). Postmodernism tends to play with the mind, and give a new meaning to things, “Postmodern art often makes it a point of demonstrating in an obvious way the instability of meaning (Clayton)”. What makes postmodernism most unique is its unpredictable nature and “think o...
Gauntlett, D. Hill, A. BFI (1999) TV Living: Television, Culture, and Everyday Life, p. 263 London: Routledge.
Postmodernism attempts to call into question or challenge the notion of a single absolute unified master narrative without simply replacing it with another. It is a paradoxical, recursive, and problematic method of critique.
The creation of transmedia designs should be carefully constructed to support and maintain fans and fandoms interest. The team behind Lost, , carefully constructed their choices, offering more when the audiences showed interest in their endeavours amongst multimedia platforms. engaged audiences using appropriate and specific design processes. The genre of Lost was not released until (how many weeks) before its release (source). This mystery and intrigue surrounding the show captivated the audience, so when it was released, people who normally avoid sci-fi shows wanted to know what had happened (Niederman, 2012). Heroes, however, knew exactly who their audience was, and targeted them through . While Lost had more views on it’s pilot, Heroes had more dedicated fans.