POMO ESSAY 2 Nathan Simmons

What is meant byg postmodern media? Postmodernism is a term to define the age we live in now; postmodern media allows anything to be art. Postmodern media Is able to distort itself, be absent from time and space and break conventions. All of this is immerses the audience, the hyper reality of it all submerses them in it. Postmodernism is a progression from modernism, a 19th century movement. Modernism was a move from the traditional to the more contemporary arts. It explored new ideas such as evolution, psychology and socialism (Marxism), and changed the way people looked at the world. Thus creating new modern media. It explored and searched utopianism, wanting a better world. Postmodernist theory grows out of and extends modernist and structuralist thinking. Postmodern media came from the scrutiny of modernism and advanced to a variety of different elements to work that pays homage and parodies others, bricolages different mediums and throws a heap load of intertetxual references. Paying homage to other peoples work is highly considered to be postmodern as it backs the idea that nothing is original a quote from Jim Jarmusch. Everything can be considered as unoriginal now, as everything has been done. Modernism created unique creations and masterpieces in their own right, something that postmodern theorist think postmodernism cant. Postmodernism accepts this, and uses these unique, defining creations to fuel artists inspiration and imagination to create something new. Taking something from the old to create something new, this is vague definition of Claude Levi-Strauss theory of bricolage, something that postmodern films use and is still acceptable for them to do so today. Quentin Tarantinos 2009 film Inglourious Basterds is something that pays homage to a lot, thus creating intertextual references. The plot can be thought as paying homage to Robert Aldrichs 1967 film The Dirty Dozen with both similar storylines of soldiers trying to destroy the Nazi regime, of which most die trying. There are plenty of other intertextual references within the film: theres a nod to John Fords 1956 western The Searchers, with the doorway scene looking as if Tarantino had payed homage to this shot, Max Linders work was mentioned and even Tarantinos own work with it references his own style which he has used in his other films, in particular the yellow text used in the opening title, which was used in Kill Bill. Gerard Gennette, a French theorist, developed the theory of intertextuality, something that backs theories of genre. The 2010 Christopher Nolan film Inception also uses includes intertextual references, one in particular being the snow scene from the 1969 James Bond film On Her Majestys Secret Service, which you can see was a clear inspiration for Nolan within inceptions snow scene. The theory of intertextuality can be seen in a good way as it gives filmmakers ideas for their own films and postmodernism doesnt tend to focus on the plagiarism side to it and Jean-Luc Godard (a French postmodern filmmaker) summed that up with this quote Its not where you take things from - its where you take them to. You can consider the way the characters are portrayed in inglourious Basterdsas being hyper real as they are so over acted making them quite humorous, parodying

POMO ESSAY 2 Nathan Simmons

them. In particular Hitlers portrayal was this and is hyper real as it is unlikely that he was like that in real life. The use of parody is used for comedic purposes and also can be used to mock other works. Baudrillard developed the idea of hyper reality, in which media texts have their own reality and with the audience being submersed within this reality, tend not to focus on their own. But of course are pulled out of this when once, for example, the film they were watching has finished. This doesnt stop audiences from taking anything out from the film. John Fiske developed the idea that we sense of the world not through our own experiences but through the media's portrayal of them. A good example of this idea was when the terrorist attack 9/11 happened, in which you got people being interviewed saying in their bemusement that it was something out of a movie! Postmodernism can relate genres and narratives across different media platforms. Video games have changed the culture we live in now, with millions of people playing and being within this simulated reality. Nicolas Winding Refn 2011 film Drive has clear links to the game Grand Theft Auto, th is shows how postmodernism is just something that can give people inspiration from anywhere. Similarly, the upcoming 2014 film Need For Speed, is a film version of the popular game franchise. Postmodernists take Levi-Strauss bricolage and the various intertextualities identified by Genette, extending their work into pure intertextuality that breaches the bounds of genre. This is something that postmodernism does, it challenges the boundaries between genres, art forms, theory and art, high art and the mass media. The genre pushes the boundaries to an unconventional style, and can manipulate time and space to create an attracting piece of work. Postmodernism has changed the way the media industry works as ideas now are so abstract, complex and can be without meaning. The music and the film industry are the two biggest, with billions to be made within these areas. In a postmodern world we live in now people are always getting new inspiration from the old and wanting to include in their own work, from this works will be made. Also industries have accepted the postmodern world by inviting it in.