Postmodern: adj. 'Modern' can be used to designate various post-medieval historical periods. Also, for each historical period described as modern, there are many different features (styles,trends, doctrines) that can be considered essential to its modern character. Moreover, 'post' may suggest either a break or a continuation. It follows 'post-modern' and 'post-modernism' can mean many different things, and an author who wishes to be understood will have to explain intended sense. This precaution is often neglected. Many writers begin with an admission that they have no clear definition of post-modernism and that it is not clear what is covered by the term, but then proceed to celebrate it at length - a curious procedure. There have been complaints of vacuous academic posturing' in this context. Some clusters of meaning can, however, be discerned. When Jean Baudrillard (1929-), French sociologist, cultural critic and media intellectual, claims that contemporary culture is post-modern, the word denotes fragmentation and promiscuous trivialization of values, symbols, images: its most characteristic manifestation is the commercial advertisements shown in television broadcast. In architecture, where the word first gained currency, post-modernism denotes a rejection of the functionalism and brutalism of modernity (high-rise slums; impersonal box-like office blocks), together with a preference of aimless eclecticism. In the arts, 'post-modernism' denotes a break with, or a continuation of, modernism. It is said that whereas modernism assumes that there is hidden meaning or truth and is engaged in a search for it, post-modernism, able to recognize absurdity when it sees it, has recourse to pastiche, many-layered irony, flippancy,etc. In philosophy, Lyotard's influential The Postmodern Condition 1979 uses the term to designate 'the deconstruction of the metanarratives of modernity'
A LIST OF POSTMODERN CHARACTERISTICS:
Irony, playfulness, black humor Postmodern writers were certainly not the first to use irony and humor in their writing, but for many postmodern writers, these became the hallmarks of their style. Postmodern writers will often treat very serious subject - World War II, the Cold War, conspiracy theories - from a position of distance and disconnect, and will choose to depict their histories ironically and humorously. e.g Film: Life of Brian
Pastiche Many postmodern writers combined, or 'pasted' elements of previous genres and styles of media to create a new narrative voice, or to comment on the writing of their contemporaries. Thomas Pynchon, one of the most important postmodern authors, uses elements from detective fiction, science fiction, and war fiction, songs, pop culture, and well-known, obscure, and fictional history. e.g Film: Life of Brian
Intertextuality An important element of postmodernism is its acknowledgments of previous works. The intertextuality of certain works of postmodern TV/film, the dependence on work that has been created earlier, attempts to comment on the situation in which both media and society found themselves in the second half of the 20th century: living, working, and creating on the backs of those that had come before. e.g Film: RocknRolla
Metafiction Many postmodern authors feature metafiction in their writing, which, essentially, is filming about filming, an attempt to make the reader aware of its fictionality, and, sometimes, the presence of the filmmaker. Authors sometimes use this technique to allow for flagrant shifts in narrative, impossible jumps in time, or to maintain emotional distance as a narrator.
Histographic metafiction This term was created by Linda Hutcheon to refer to films that fictionalize actual historical events and characters: Thomas Pynchon's Mason and Dixon, for example, features a scene in which George Washington smokes pot. e.g Film: Forest Gump
Temporal distortion Temporal distortion is a literary technique that uses a nonlinear timeline; the director may jump forwards and backwards in time, or there may be cultural and historical references that do not fit: Abraham Lincoln uses a telephone in Ishmael Reed's Flight to Canada. This technique is frequently used in literature but it has become even more common in films. e.g Film: The Usual Suspects
Paranoia Many postmodern screenwriters write under the assumption that modern society cannot be explained or understood. From that point of view, any apparent connections or controlling influences on the chaos of society would be very frightening, and this lends a sense of paranoia to many postmodern works. e.g Fim: The Matrix
Maximalism Villified by its critics for being in turns disorganized, sprawling, overly long, and emotionally disconnected, maximalism exist in the tradition of long works like The Odyssey. Authors that use this technique will sometimes defend their works as being as long as it needs to be, depending on the subject material that is covered.
Faction Faction is very similar to historiographic metafiction, in that its subject material is based on actual events, but writers of faction tends to blur the line between fact and fiction to the degree that it is almost impossible to know the difference between the two, as opposed to metafiction, which often draws attention to the fact that it is not true.
Magical realism Arguably the most important postmodern technique, magical realism is the introduction of fantastic or impossible elements into a narrative that is otherwise normal. Magical realist films may include dream taking place during normal life, the return of previously deceased characters, extremely complicated plots, wild shifts in time, and myths and fairy tales becoming part of the narrative. Many critic s argue that magical realism has its roots in the works of Jorge Borges and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, two South American writers, and some have classified it as Latin American style. e.g Film: Inception
Participation Many postmodern authors, as a response to modernism, which frequently set its authors apart from their readers, attempt to involve the reader as much as possible over the course of a novel. This can take the form of asking the reader questions, including unwritten narratives that must be constructed by the reader, or allowing the reader to make decisions regarding the course of the narrative e.g Film: Deadpool
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