Postmodernism Quotes

“Postmodernism has turned into this devil's vortex where no matter what you do, your neck will be turned and your face shoved into a foreign example, and worse, no matter what you say, despite the context, it will be considered a postmodern device. That's the danger of postmodernism: it poses itself as something that can't be trumped, something you can’t escape. It continually mocks your efforts for the sake of its name. I know even this will be seen as another postmodern bullet, and no matter what I say, critics and readers will be locked into how to lock me in.”    -  Brian Celio, Catapult Soul
“Isn't post-modernism really one big cover-up for the failure of the French to write a truly interesting novel ever since a sports car ate Albert Camus?” ― John Leonard

“In our postmodern culture which is TV dominated, image sensitive, and morally vacuous, personality is everything and character is increasingly irrelevant.”
― David F. Wells, No Place for Truth: Or, Whatever Happened to Evangelical Theology    

Postmodernity and Lady Gaga - Essay Form

Postmodernism can be expressed through a wide variety of Media texts, one of which are music videos. However as in the case with many other outlets of postmodernism, it is not always clear which are and which are not postmodern. This is because there is no real consensus of to what postmodernism actually means. Therefore any postmodern labels attached to a text are merely a reflection of personal choice.

One example of a music video what I believe is postmodern or at least appears to be influenced by the subject is the video for “Telephone” by the artist Lady Gaga.

 Postmodernism can be expressed visually via the presence of postmodern techniques. These techniques can include many of the following: Parody, playfulness, pastiche, intertextuality, eclectism, hyper consciousness and narcissism. These postmodern techniques have been shown in Lady Gaga’s “Telephone” music video and therefore have attached a label to the text as ‘postmodern’.

 The first reason to why Lady Gaga is a postmodern artist comes from Baudrillard’s idea of hyper reality where he states that we cannot separate the images that we are shown from what is the reality. In relation to Gaga, her name is a clear symbol of hyper reality as it allows her to have two personalities as she is never referred to as Stefani Germanotta. This also allows her to keep her different lives separate; ultimately allowing her to control her image and get away with wearing outrageous outfits as this is the hyper reality presented to us for Lady Gaga. Furthermore, with the creation of a hyper – real version of herself, she is able to keep attention away from the reality of her everyday life.

 Intertextual referencing is another key aspect into the bravado of Lady Gaga and this factor is used in almost every one of her videos. In relation to the “Telephone” video, Gaga calls Beyonce “Honey Bee” which is indirectly a reference to “honey bunny” who is a character in Quintin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. Moreover, the label of “pussy wagon” on the car they drive is taken from “Kill Bill” where the same name is used. These intertextual references give the audience something to relate to, but also makes the original content and boosts her image.

 

To conclude, bricolage is another major influence on Lady Gaga’s persona and it could also be argued that the way she dresses alone is a bricolage due to the fact that it is so outrageous and creates a totally different image. Bricolage could also be denoted in her video “paparazzi” where she uses the iconic signifier of a cup and saucer and continues to style herself around that item. This has then become an iconic signifier of Lady Gaga, therefore highlighting a new image of an item has led to have a different meaning.

 

Vocabulary

Narrative - A spoken or written account of connected events; a story

Syntax of the plot - The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language.

Protagonist - The leading character or a major character in a drama, movie, novel, or other fictional text

Antagonist - A person who actively opposes or is hostile to someone or something

Climax/ crescendo - The most intense, exciting, or important point of something

Equilibrium - A state in which opposing forces or influences are balanced

Disequilibrium - A loss or lack of balance or stability

Enigma code - A person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand

Proairetic - Drives narrative through anticipation of an action's resolution

Linear - Arranged in or extending along a straight or nearly straight line: "linear arrangements

Non Linear - a system which is not linear, that is, a system which does not satisfy the superposition principle

Circular - Having the form of a circle.

Parallel narrative - two narrated parts of a story set in the same place and same time.

Convergent narrative - also known as Hybrid narrative, it is a narrative that mixes conventions of two or more different genres.

Interweaving narrative - a plot with several narrative threads that all take place one after another and are 'interwoven'

Flashbacks/flash-forward - A literary or cinematic device in which an earlier/later event is inserted into the normal chronological order of a narrative.

Real time - a narrative technique whereby events are depicted as occurring entirely within the span of and at the same rate as the depiction

Reversal - when events happen from the latest to the earliest, in back-to-front order i.e. from the most recent event to the first event.

Dream sequences - a technique used to set apart a brief interlude from the main story. The interlude may consist of a flashback, a flash-forward, a fantasy, a vision, a dream, or some other element.

Repetition - when an event in a narrative happens more than once

Different characters' POV - when a narrative is told from the perspectives of different characters rather than just the protagonist

Ellipsis - when a period of time in a narrative is skipped e.g. showing the birth of the protagonist then skipping their childhood to show them as a young adult.

Pre-figuring of events that have not yet taken place - when a narrative suggests that certain events may have taken place, or the audience assumes these events have taken place even though the event itself may not be shown

Postmodernity Lesson Notes

• They break boundaries - Avant guard vs fine arts tradition.

                                                  Mix high and low culture.
                                                  Combination of media happening at the same time

• Anti realism/ hyper realism - No Reality, weird things happen, reach back into the past and forward into the future, tend to adondend ground narrative structure.
• Very intertextual musically and pop culturally, employ a great deal of pastiche, blur historical chronology, they are amoral (anything goes)

A quote by a theorist says "Music videos creat a schitzophrenic abondoment of rational liberal discourse which creates a nihlistic amoral universe of representation" by Andrew Goodwin.

• Music video are well adapted to the notion of consumerism, commercial.
• Flow of different signifiers to challenge meaning. "Image, culture, impolosion of information, hyper real simulation" by Baudrillard.
• Showing of women's bodies
• Representation of race

These all highlight how music videos are postmodern.