literDefine postmodern media, with examples.

Postmodern media rejects the traditional movement of modernism, a movement

that occurred in the late 19th century; driven by utopian ideal visions of human
life as the basis. Postmodern media often opposes the traditional grand
narratives that associated itself with totalising forms such as love, politics and
religion used to understand reality. Instead, postmodern media often subverts
and disregards conventions such as time, space and narrative to create a
deliberate distortion of reality to create a hyper reality. Rather, it adopts
referential techniques such as bricolage and pastiche with the intention of being
read by a literate audience.
Quentin Tarantinos war film Inglorious Basterds exemplifies this rejection,
creating a distorted reality that challenges modernist utopias through
manipulating the audiences perception of war. The film immediately creates a
disjunctive style seen through the use of visible Chapters, a convention
associated with the medium of literature texts. A distinct hyper reality is
therefore created as the self-conscious form of pastiche addresses to the
audience that it is a non-linear narrative, a stylist technique associated with
postmodernism. This is reinforced through the introductory title of Once upon a
time in Nazi-Occupied France, again a direct reference to the fairy tale genre.
This complies with Levi-Strauss theory of addition within the concept of
bricolage as Tarantino has taken socially recognisable debris from the fairy tale
genre and combined it with the war film. This also adheres to Genettes theory of
hypotextuality as Tarantino has modified the hypotext of fairy tales and applied
it to the audiences preconceived idea of expected violence, challenging
modernist utopian visions and disregarding the boundaries of the war genre.
Structuralist thinking is challenged again through the use of yellow text for
subtitles and titles, indicating Tarantinos signature postmodernist style by
distancing himself from the conventional white text choice. This supports
theorists such as Strinati that define postmodernism as style over content as it
strikes the literate audience as unusual and breaks the rules of the war genre.
Postmodern media often associates itself with the concept of self-reflexivity by
acknowledging that it is in fact a constructed text. This is primarily evident
through Tarantinos use of a birds eye view during Shoshannas preparation for
the Nazi film premiere of Nations Pride. The camera follows Shoshanna as she
makes her way across the halls, exposing the construction of the walls and
layouts of the rooms as a film set. This direct deconstruction of the film set
reinforces to the audience that the war film is entirely fictional and in no way
does it represent the reality with that they are familiar. Baudrillards developed
idea of hyper reality is a significant feature within this scene as the audience, as
well as the characters, are aware they are experiencing a prepared reality as
chosen by the director of which they are conscious of. This acknowledgement of
the film sets faade is a feature which defines postmodernist texts as it subverts
the unconscious principles which is often associated with modernist texts.

Additionally, postmodern media, as previously seen, adopts various debris from

other media to create a distinct mixture of genres, often challenging these, to
create a completely new text. Drive directed by Nicolas Winding Refn is a
prime example as the films narrative is a direct reference to Grimms Fairy Tales.
This can be seen within the structure of the character, The Kid, being the
protagonist and supposed hero with his love interest Irene being the damsel in
distress. Genettes theory of hypotextuality is applicable here as the utopian
vision of a fairy tale, of which modernist texts are the basis for, challenges the
disequilibrium The Kid faces throughout the film as he is revealed to have a
disjunctive violent persona. The rejection of western moralistic narratives, as
suggested by Lyotard, where the hero gets the girl is evident here. The Kid,
during the finale of the film shows that he has been stabbed but a drive into
L.As polluted streets once more, rejecting utopian conclusions of films as he
does not win Irene. Instead, Baudrillards circular referentiality is compliant with
this sequence as it can be argued that The Kid is experiencing the same
disequilibrium as he was at the beginning of the film, unable to escape his
violent past. Therefore the audience can recognise the breaking of modernist
principles as the unusual representation of no happy ending can be defined a
postmodern.
Postmodern media within television is a popular form, which can be seen in the
US sitcom Family Guy, renowned for being controversial and highlighting the
lack of morality. An example of this can be seen within the episode Blue
Harvest which was an implicit parodying of the 1977 film Stars Wars Episode
IV: A New Hope. This is compliant with Genettes theory of metatextuality as the
entire text is an implicit commentary on the Star Wars franchise, however
modifying the original narrative to a continuous self-reflexive one. The films title
A long time ago but somehow in the future rejects traditional grand narrative,
as it suggests that the episode has not progressed in time nor moved backwards.
This suggests that the narrative can go in any direction and is unpredictable,
favouring Lyotards idea of a micro-narrative. Therefore this can be defined as
postmodern as modernist texts often associated itself with the progressive linear
narrative, whereas this text clearly rejects this idea. This non-linear narrative is
highlighted when Luke Skywalker, played by the character Chris, breaks the
fourth wall and introduced the London Symphony Orchestra and composer John
Williams. This form of self-reflexivity creates a distinct hyper reality through its
disjunctive style, especially as it provides completely irrelevant information that
will have no effect on the progress of the narrative; therefore no following
conventional modernist narratives.
Postmodern music, like both film and TV, is irrespective of boundaries and often
divulges into other genres whilst being heavily referential which is reliant on the
audiences semic knowledge to decode this. The artist Lady Gaga demonstrates
this idea through her features on the American TV show The Simpsons. Here,
she sings a song called Superstar with the character Lisa Simpson, conforming
to the medias representation of her as weird to create a self-mocking humour.
This supports theorists such as Fiskes semic code as it is reliant on the
audiences cultural knowledge of herself in order for it to be understood.

Additionally, this supports Kramers definition of postmodern music that it is, on

some level and in some way, ironic. This challenges modernist texts as often
they would avoid self-conscious recognition as it would be no longer replicate the
reality the audience understand.
Overall postmodern media often rejects traditional ideas of art replicating nature
and reality, often defying this by placing a huge emphasis on construction fiction
rather than reality. Therefore it can be defined as an entirely new simulation of
reality, and arguably that modern literate audiences prefer.