As a movement, Post modernism worked against the ideas of the previous Modernist movement, opposing the traditional ideas and placing importance upon notions that are thought-provoking. Instead of simply recreating images that are already known within the audience’s minds Post modernist texts or works use irony, can be self-reflexive and play with the constructs and boundaries of social conventions such as gender, sexuality and race. Intertexuality is also a key aspect of Post modernism and relies on a literate audience with a knowledge of a lot of different media texts.
Many Post modern texts can be recognised by the seemingly ‘weird’ nature of the themes. It has even been described as ‘weird for the sake of weird’. This quality comes from the apparent disjuncture of the ideas used within one text. For instance, a soundtrack for a Post modern film may be made up of tracks well known within other completely different genres, giving an off centre feel to the film. Quentin Tarantino’s ‘Inglourious Basterds‘ for example; uses music from western films and 80’s music such as David Bowie. Also, a large feature of Post modern texts (TV, film or music) is that the genres will be blended, more so that crossovers like romantic comedies. In this case you may not be able to categorise the text under one genre and you may not be able to define what it is at all. An example of this is ‘Being John Malkovich’, a film that could be a fantasy, comedy or drama or all three at once.
Another feature that ‘Being John Malkovich’ has that a lot of Post modern texts have is the challenge and manipulation of constructs. This could be constructs of gender, challenging the stereotypes of women, for example or the constructs of sexuality, using ‘gay’ references which could run the risk of alienating some of the audience. As well as this it is common for Post modern works to use and develop upon stereotypes of characters, making them ‘larger than life’ to the point that they no longer seem realistic. The texts often push as much as possible such as Aldo Raine in ‘Inglourious Basterds’ and his ridiculous Southern accent which at times becomes comical. It is this kind of manipulation and use of social reference that make Post modern texts thought provoking and interesting, especially to an educated and literate media audience which is becoming more common and widespread as the media develops in all its formats.
As well as the audience being literate they need to be able to appreciate humour in all its forms. Post modern texts use irony throughout usually and the humour can be dry, sarcastic and even awkward. The humour is not always ‘laugh-out-loud’ but it can be appealing to a certain audience. There is definitely a comparison to be made between the humour used in Post modern texts and the humour used in other media pieces.
The aspect of hyper reality that is a feature that non Post modern texts could not get away with without someone calling them out on it. This is, for example, after a fight scene and the clothes are completely spotless or using ridiculous stereotypes that are based on something real but break past it. Hyper reality may also cross over into the fantasy or sci-fi genres, again blending genres and creating something new.
The idea of creating something new out of the old, bricolage or reusing ideas is another feature used in Post modern texts. This ties into intertexuality as scenes from films may be recreated to create a certain feeling or effect or parts of one text may be used within another. This can then branch out to texts making references to themselves and that brings us to self-awareness.
Self awareness is used a lot in post modern texts and Tarantino, especially, is a fan. This may refer to shots of the scenery being seen through panning shots (‘Inglourious Basterds’), breaking the fourth wall, in other words, a character looking into the camera as if they are talking directly to the audience or as I mentioned references to the text within itself.
No comments:
Post a Comment