Postmodernism Approaches

What do we mean by postmodernism? Unlike many other theories we have covered, postmodernism can be heard outside academic discussion. Rather than being just relevant to media, postmodernism has been described as defining how we live our lives now. It discusses cultural forms, from television to cinema to art to advertising to music videos to architecture. Yet it describes the social condition within which we currently live, therefore it connects to politics, economics, history, and our sense of identity. In these ways, postmodernism is large, and those who espouse it suggest that we live in a postmodern world right now.

Defining postmodernism Defining postmodernism has proved disconcertingly difficult. Different thinkers have approached it in different ways. An argument that has been addressed is ‘the difficulty in saying what postmodernism is, is in itself postmodernist’ (Barlow & Mills 2009: 560). If we take the example of Madonna, we can see recurring ideas which are common to postmodernist thinking. The idea that Madonna is all about image is key. That is, the ways in which we understand people, and the world around us, is through the surface appearance of things.

Why? It has been argued that postmodernist address has come about because of society is open to media bombardment with image-based cultural markers. These images are seen as having replaced the ‘real’ world; we feel like we have ‘seen’ polar bears in the wild because we have watched a natural history documentary, when in fact we have never left our living spaces. In this way, experiencing the image of something comes to replace the thing itself.

Baudrillard’s theory Baudrillard identifies that the images we see and experience are more powerful than the objects themselves. He refers to this phenomenon as the ‘loss of the real’ (1994 [1981]), and he argues we now live our lives with little similarity to those lived by people centuries ago in a pre- industrial, pre-modern, pre-technological society. It is this idea that is central to the Matrix (Dir. Wachowski Brothers, 1999); Neo discovers that the world he thinks is ‘real’ is in fact a simulation, nothing but surface, and he fights to dismantle that image and gain access to the real world.

The Matrix Where does this film text have its leaning? Pro the postmodern world or anti-postmodern? Firstly, the film takes preference of the real world to the imaginary one created by machines. Secondly, Cypher’s choice to return to the imaginary world, because he enjoys ‘the taste of steak’. This is presented as a villainous and criminal act. Yet the film is itself all about surface, and offers pleasures associated with the ‘look’ of cinema. Consider the ‘bullet-time’ sequences, in which time is slowed, along with hyperkinetic action sequences The fetishism of weaponry along side athletic bodies of its stars. This in itself is postmodern because we may enjoy the film with little connection to the everyday ‘reality’ we know and understand. What is enjoyable is how the film ‘looks’, not what it is saying, this is the key idea of postmodernism.

To sum up MTV, for example, is seen as ‘an example of postmodern corporate global media culture’ (Bignell 2000: 174); …that the music video presents performers as things to be looked at, with little interest in them below the surface, therefore constructs ‘a seamless realm of simulations that hinder our acquisition of the really real’ (Collins 1992: 332).

An alternative application Jameson (1991) suggests that postmodernism is a consequence of the industrialised nature of much of society, and the fact that we live in a capitalist, consumerist world. That is, if the primary activity of the public is to buy things, then it is not surprising that the ways in which we make sense of the world – and attempt to define ourselves – is through appearances and objects. In this way we have become detached from the processes which produce things – we no longer make our own clothes or grow our own food, for example – and instead are only interested in the final product, which is pre-packaged for us, and whose suitability we decide upon based on image.