MARILYN MONROE Andy Warhol (1962) Introducing… POSTMODERNISM POSTMODERNISM POSTMODERNISM POSTMODERNISM Everything is beautiful. Pop is everything. –Andy Warhol

Postmodern texts Fiction Nonfiction Poetry IN CLASS Readings, videos, and nonsense

Modernism: The Age of Literacy Postmodernism: The Age of the Spectacle The universal subject is alienation of the individual, which is caused by: The multicultural subject is the voice of “the other,” which lends itself to: Industrialization Power is based in Capitalism, which is invincible! Deindustrialization Let’s go green! Urbanization Suburbanization Nationalism/ Colonialism / Imperialism Globalism/Decolonization ConsumerismGlobal consumerism (the Internet)

Modernism : ( Postmodernism : ) : A reaction to the horrors of WWI Post WWII: A reaction to the horrors of WWII Iconoclastic – Modernism challenges tradition and the status quo Parodistic – Postmodernism appropriates and recycles for fun Fascination with the new, the modern, the mechanical Fascination with nostalgia. This fascination can be serious or playful. Welcome to the world of the memoir. Focus on form and stylistic experimentation, such as stream of consciousness Focus on playful and ironic self- conscious reflection (metafiction) Political opposition of the avant garde to the status quo Political appropriation of the mainstream -- high / low cultural boundaries blurred

Questions of truth and subjectivity first proposed in Modernism, gave rise to the belief in multiple truths and multiple subjectivities in Postmodernism. There is no “reality, only interpretations of reality.” It’s Pomo… You know, Post-modern… Weird for the sake of being weird.

DROWNING GIRL Roy Lichtenstein (1963) What might some multiple interpretation s be? Whose meaning is the right one?

FLAG Jasper Johns (1954)

200 Campbell’s Soup Cans Andy Warhol (1962) Brillo Box Andy Warhol (1964)

RENÉ MAGRITTE “The Treachery of Images” (1929) REMEMBER THIS? (HYPER)REALITY In Postmodernism... Thus, illusions of individuality appear to be more real than reality....a sense of fragmentation and a decentered self lead to...a sense of fragmentation and a decentered self lead to multiple, conflicting identities.... hyper-reality, image saturation, and simulacra seem more powerful than the "real.”... hyper-reality, image saturation, and simulacra seem more powerful than the "real.”

Simulacra - in the era of television - are copies of things that no longer have an original (or never had one to begin with). Abstraction today is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory - PRECESSION OF SIMULACRA - it is the map that engenders the territory....(Baudrillard, 1994, p. 1) Abstraction today is no longer that of the map, the double, the mirror or the concept. Simulation is no longer that of a territory, a referential being or a substance. It is the generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal. The territory no longer precedes the map, nor survives it. Henceforth, it is the map that precedes the territory - PRECESSION OF SIMULACRA - it is the map that engenders the territory....(Baudrillard, 1994, p. 1)

“BINARIES & AMBIGUITIES” WITH SPOON BOY AND BANANA Binaries of modernism (black vs. white) become AMBIGUITIES in postmodernism (GRAY). PM suggests “the erosion of the older distinction between high culture and so-called mass or popular culture.” –Frederic Jameson DOWN WITH HIERARCHIES! EVERYTHING IS AMBIGUOUS!

THE Postmodern Approach to VANILLA COKE NOSTALGIA – For those good old-fashioned ice cream shops when vanilla syrup would be added to soda SIMULATION – Today’s kids will have only Vanilla Coke™ and not the original reference (the fountain soda; the coke with vanilla syrup).

Which is the “real” Atlantic City? Disney’s “Atlantic City” The Jersey Girl’s Atlantic City

The postmodern reply to the modern consists of recognizing that the past, since it cannot really be destroyed, because its destruction leads to silence, must be revisited: but with irony, not innocently.–– Umberto Eco, Reflections on the Name of the Rose We revisit the past with irony, but often with more longing than irony. We are ironic because of the longing. Irony numbs the longing and the despair of not being able to have what we cannot have or change what we cannot change.

R.L. 1961

Sincerity versus Irony –– The Postmodern Predicament? MOVIE (TITANIC) SINCERE REACTION: “That’s so sad.” IRONIC REACTION: “Let’s dress up as the Titanic for Halloween.” Do we revisit the past with sincerity –– or do we view it in an ironic light?

LOOK MICKEY Roy Lichtenstein (1961) MODERNISMIs characterized by a seriousness MODERNISMIs characterized by a seriousness of intention and middle- class earnestness. POSTMODERNISM is a challenge to official seriousness.

Critic Frederic Jameson has proposed that postmodernism…has bequeathed us ‘a world in which stylistic innovation is no longer possible, all that is left is to imitate dead styles.’ CRYING GIRL Roy Lichtenstein (1964)

CAMPBELL’S SOUP CAN Andy Warhol (1964)

How is the postmodern model like the original?

MICHAEL JACKSON AND BUBBLES (1988) JEFF KOONS

SINCERE OR IRONIC? Is Jeff Koons being SINCERE or IRONIC? Is this PARODY or homage-PASTICHE? Is he fascinated or disgusted by KITSCH?

USHERING IN BANALITY (1988)

CLOTHESPIN Claes Oldenburg (Philadelphia, 1976)

Postmodern texts emphasize unease and a sense of dislocation from contemporary society. The literature may “revel in uncertainty.” The literature may use multiple narrators to reinforce the subjective view. This brings the reader inside, where he/she is free to make various interpretations. The literature may incorporate references to popular culture, such as cartoons, film, pop music, brand names, logos, and fairy tales rather than make allusions to high art.

Postmodernist works reveal a penchant for boundless superficiality and random sensations combined with a benumbed stance of detached irony. Writers rely on a conglomeration of methods -- typically including bricolage, pastiche, kitsch, metafiction, and parody -- to convey the complex absurdity of contemporary life. They ignore the Modernist distinctions between high and low art, fiction and reality; instead, all elements and voices are equally compelling, fascinating, and true. This absence of hierarchical categories converges in the Postmodern lack of a grand narrative, which has traditionally been the grail formula of Modernist novels. A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius “After I Was Thrown in the River and Before I Drowned”

PARODY AND PASTICHE PARODY – The imitative use of the words, style, attitude, tone and ideas of an author in such a way as to make them ridiculous. This is usually achieved by exaggerating certain traits, using more or less the same technique as the cartoon caricaturist. In fact, a kind of satirical mimicry. PASTICHE – A patchwork of words, sentences or complete passages from various authors or one author. It is, therefore, a kind of imitation and, when intentional, may be a form of parody. NOW WITH 79% MORE IRONY

kitsch kitsch (kch) Sentimentality or vulgar, often pretentious, bad taste, especially in the arts: "When money tries to buy beauty it tends to purchase a kind of courteous kitsch" (William H. Gass).

More Postmodernism Terms Para text refers to text that is beside; near; alongside or a subsidiary; assistant to the main text. Examples include the copyright information, acknowledgements, and appendix of a novel. Metafiction is fiction writing that deals playfully with the nature of fiction, the techniques and conventions used in it, and the role of the author. Often the author will draw attention to the act of creating the writing. Dave Eggers does this in AHWOSG.

Postmodernism is full of contradictions. There also seems to be no foreseeable end to postmodernism. There is a new term emerging in some philosophical discussions, proclaiming that we are entering into a paramodern era, one that finds knowing by not- knowing. Paramodern art seeks to “reassert qualities, such as decorative color and form, emotional stimulation and the sumptuous use of evocative materials” “Art, Taking the Paramount Path.” Helen Harrison. The New York Times. June 21, 1981.

Postmodernism, like modernism: rejecting boundaries between high and low forms of art, rejecting rigid genre distinctions, emphasizing pastiche, parody, bricolage, irony, and playfulness. Postmodern art (and thought) favors reflexivity and self-consciousness, fragmentation and discontinuity (especially in narrative structures), ambiguity, simultaneity, and an emphasis on the destructured, decentered, dehumanized subject.

Differences Postmodernism is probably best understood as a critique of society in reaction to modernism (Kissick, 1993). While modernists believed in the possibility of art as universal communication, postmodernists believe art to be contextual or culture specific. While modernists created "art for art's sake," the postmodernists seek a connection between art and life (Gablik, 1991). Postmodernism has decentered the individual and creativity (at least in theory), while emphasizing the interaction of language, culture and society. Postmodernists accept multiple views, fragmentation, and exhibit tolerance for ambiguity (Barrett, 1994).

PoMo Project 1. Choose a text or several texts – Get teacher approval 2. Choose/Create a PoMo project – Project’s content (what you write about) and Presentation (how you convey your ideas) will both demonstrate an understanding of PoMo

“Correct" a masterpiece. Rework their masterpiece according to the principles of postmodernism. Pastiche, meta- fictionalize, or…

You don’t have to rewrite the whole piece. Is this what I am asking?

Pastiche – Visual project Find an old book and collage into it. How does the text dialogue with the collaging? (Written explanation required.) Explore visual puns and irony to critique/enhance the book. Is the book still a book? A work of art?

Gorillaz—GaGa—Radiohead—American Idiot Create a postmodern work of writing that critiques or comments on a postmodern piece of music. Maybe use a concept album for a story?

Leviathan Bo Bartlett Postmodern or Paramodern?