Post-modernism
-cultural phenomenon linked to socio-economic structures
-modernism defined by opposition of capitalism & socialism
-post-modernism defined by global, corporate capitalism

Fredric Jameson “Postmodernism and Consumer Society”
-characterizes postmodernism in terms of loss
-conservative diagnosis (though rooted in Marxism)
-mourning the death of the subject
-postmodernism is both a reaction against modernism and an extension of it
-much modern art seems to be already post-modern
-James Joyce, Gertrude Stein, Marcel Duchamp, etc.
-in po-mo: art no longer poses a threat to the social order
-collapse of high and low culture (film/TV studies symptomatic)
-end of philosophy (becomes theory)
-end of history (becomes nostalgia/stereotype/pastness)
-“culture of amnesia”
-media exist to help us forget the past
-quotation and allusion become appropriation and incorporation
-rap/sampling/scratching
-styles are composed of random amalgamation of past styles
-however: postmodernism is not a style
-“Late capitalist” phenomenon linked to new world order
-post-industrial (manufacturing moved to 3rd world)
-computerized (primary commodities are information and culture rather than material goods)
-organized around consumerism (people primarily understood as consumers/marketing demographics not “individuals”)
-Po-mo as cultural dominant: nothing is shocking anymore

Two primary features: pastiche and schizophrenia

Pastiche: “blank parody” (parody without a sense of humor)
-unlike parody, which has affection/respect for the original, pastiche simply mimics styles dissociated from individuality
-characterized by fragmentation; juxtaposition
-random appropriation/cannibalization of cultural elements
-e.g., architecture, music
-stylistic diversity and heterogeneity
-death of the subject
-no more individuals
-no more new styles
-innovation impossible
-reflexivity
-art about art (rather than about politics or society)
-stylistically flat, lacking in affect or emotion

Schizophrenia: (not like clinical schizophrenia)
-fragmented subjectivity
-resembles split personality but not literally)
-de-emphasis of narrative and logical structuring principles
-localized, temporary moments of intensity
-textuality
-breakdown of relationship between signifiers
-time (and everything) is an effect of language (Lacan)
-schizophrenics live in a perpetual present
-temporal discontinuity
-words lose meaning
-language becomes material rather than signifying
-importance of images

Film and postmodernism
-film is fundamentally modern
-appeared at the height of the modern era
-linear (successive frames) – like the factory assembly-line
-perception based on cognitive & psychoanalytic effects



Another theory of postmodernism: Jean Baudrillard
-more celebratory and forward-looking than Jameson
-we should revel in our contradictions/discontinuities
-take pleasure from our own deaths as individuals
-allows greater diversity, multiculturalism, gender equality
-renewed perception of the world (maybe nothing’s real)
-“reality” has become “reality TV”
-The Gulf War Did Not Take Place (1992)
-America is the postmodern city par excellence
-Las Vegas and Los Angeles are the quintessential, postmodern American cities (L.A. Architecture?)
-Disneyland, the Strip, Hollywood Wax Museum

Simulacrum
-exact copy for which there is no original
-Blade Runner: what if we are all replicants – androids with human memories; what’s the difference between “us” and “them?”

Screenings

Pastiche
Michel Gondry | Let Forever Be | Chemical Brothers
Spike Jonze | Buddy Holly | Weezer

Schizophrenia
-Rico Gatson – Gun Play

Self-reflexivity
Wayne’s World – Justify My Love
Mystery Science Theater 3000 – Kitten With a Whip
Michel Gondry | Bachelorette | Bjork

Intertextuality
Virgil Widrich | Fast Film

Surface over depth
Tommy Palotta & Bob Sabiston | Figures of Speech