Postmodernism and Contemporary Literature
Summary
TLDRDr. Michael Greedy's lecture delves into the complexities of post-modernism in contemporary literature and culture. He defines post-modernism as a movement emerging after modernism, characterized by its experimental and often controversial nature. The talk explores key post-modernist techniques such as nostalgia mode, intertextuality, meta-fiction, and the concept of the 'death of the real,' using examples from literature, film, and art to illustrate these concepts. Greedy encourages audience interaction, inviting them to consider the value of novelty in art and the implications of a reality that may not be as authentic as perceived.
Takeaways
- 📚 Post-modernism is a term describing art and culture that emerged after the modernist movement, with broad implications in literature, architecture, painting, cinema, and more.
- 🔍 The term 'post-modernism' is controversial, with disagreements on its definition and whether it is a positive or negative development in art and culture.
- 🕰 Modernism, a precursor to post-modernism, was characterized by experimental writing and art from the late 19th to early 20th century, with notable figures like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.
- 🖼️ The contrast between traditional and modernist art is stark, with modernism pushing boundaries through abstraction, fragmentation, and innovation.
- 📖 Modernist literature often employed complex and cryptic styles, such as the stream-of-consciousness technique exemplified in James Joyce's 'Finnegans Wake'.
- 🎭 Post-modernism often grapples with the 'postmodern dilemma', questioning how to innovate in the shadow of modernism's extreme experiments.
- 🔄 The 'nostalgia mode' in post-modernism involves drawing on past styles and genres, as seen in George Lucas's 'Star Wars', blending samurai, western, and fairy tale elements.
- 🔗 'Intertextuality' is a post-modernist technique where one literary text includes or references another, creating a dialogue between works and challenging the notion of originality.
- 🎨 'Meta-fiction' is a form of writing where a story is about the process of storytelling itself, often blurring the lines between fiction and reality.
- 🌐 The concept of the 'death of the real' in post-modernism suggests that reality may not be as authentic as perceived, often explored in films like 'The Truman Show' and 'The Matrix'.
- 🤔 The script invites reflection on the value of novelty and originality in art, the role of nostalgia, and the implications of questioning reality's authenticity.
Q & A
What is the main topic of Dr. Michael Greedy's talk?
-The main topic of Dr. Michael Greedy's talk is post-modernism and contemporary literature, focusing on defining post-modernism and introducing key post-modernist techniques.
What is the time frame of the modernist movement as mentioned in the talk?
-The modernist movement is said to run roughly from 1890 to 1940 in the talk.
How does post-modernism relate to modernism according to the script?
-Post-modernism is presented as an umbrella term for styles of art and culture that appeared after the modernist movement, broadly in the aftermath of the Second World War.
What are some of the characteristics of modernist writing mentioned in the talk?
-Some characteristics of modernist writing mentioned include complexity, fragmentation, and aggressive innovation.
Can you provide an example of a modernist artwork from the visual arts?
-An example of a modernist artwork from the visual arts is not explicitly named in the script, but a painting from 1913 is described as abstract, fragmented, and experimental.
What is the significance of the excerpt from James Joyce's 'Finnegans Wake'?
-The excerpt from 'Finnegans Wake' is used to illustrate the cryptic, semi-nonsensical, and stream of consciousness style of modernist writing, which is experimental and challenging to read.
What is the 'postmodern dilemma' as described in the talk?
-The 'postmodern dilemma' refers to the challenge faced by writers and artists working after the modernist movement, questioning how to create art that is both new and innovative without simply imitating or being overshadowed by the extreme experiments of modernism.
What is the 'nostalgia mode' in post-modernism?
-The 'nostalgia mode' in post-modernism is about artists and writers drawing on past styles and genres to create something new, often revisiting older cultural elements with a 'back to the future' quality.
What does 'intertextuality' mean in the context of literature?
-Intertextuality refers to the presence of part of one literary text within another, which could be through direct quotations, indirect references, or shared characters or storylines.
Can you explain the concept of 'metafiction' as introduced in the talk?
-Metafiction is a form of fiction that is about books or storytelling itself, often involving elements that make the reader aware of the fictional construct, such as characters being aware they are in a novel.
What is the concept of the 'death of the real' in post-modernist culture?
-The 'death of the real' is a post-modernist concept that questions the authenticity and substantiality of reality, often explored in works that blur the lines between reality and illusion, such as in films like 'The Truman Show' or 'The Matrix'.
How does Dr. Greedy suggest we engage with the talk's interactive elements?
-Dr. Greedy suggests pausing the recording at certain points to reflect on questions, discuss with others if possible, and jot down thoughts or ideas to engage with the interactive elements of the talk.
Outlines
📚 Introduction to Post-Modernism and Interactive Lecture
Dr. Michael Greedy introduces his lecture on post-modernism and contemporary literature, aiming to define the term and explore its key techniques. He encourages interactive learning, inviting the audience to pause and reflect on their understanding of post-modernism and its impact on art and culture. Post-modernism is described as a movement that emerged after modernism, characterized by a broad range of styles in various creative fields. The lecture promises to delve into the controversial nature of post-modernism, challenging the audience to consider its merits and demerits.
🎨 The Contrast Between Traditional Art and Modernism
The script contrasts traditional art with modernist art, using two paintings as examples to illustrate the shift from representation to abstraction. It discusses the characteristics of modernist literature, such as complexity and fragmentation, with notable authors like James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, T.S. Eliot, and Joseph Conrad. The audience is invited to consider their preferences between traditional and modernist styles, reflecting on the appeal of abstract and experimental art forms.
🌟 The Challenge of Post-Modernism: Following Modernist Innovations
This section delves into the 'postmodern dilemma' faced by artists and writers after the extreme experiments of modernism. It questions how to create art that is both new and compelling without simply imitating or surpassing modernist techniques. The script introduces key post-modernist techniques such as nostalgia mode, intertextuality, meta-fiction, and the death of the author, suggesting that these are ways to navigate the challenge of creating original work in the wake of modernism.
🔄 The Nostalgia Mode in Post-Modernism
The concept of the 'nostalgia mode' is introduced, where post-modernist works draw on past styles and themes to create something new. Using the example of 'Star Wars', the script explains how George Lucas combined elements from samurai films, westerns, and fairy tales to create a nostalgic yet innovative film. The audience is encouraged to consider the role of nostalgia in originality and the prevalence of this technique in various cultural forms.
🔗 Intertextuality: Weaving Texts Together in Post-Modern Literature
Intertextuality is defined as the presence of one text within another, and its prevalence in post-modern literature is discussed. Examples are given, such as 'One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest' and works by Carol Churchill and Carol Ann Duffy, to illustrate how authors reference or borrow from other texts. The audience is prompted to consider the reasons behind intertextuality, such as paying tribute, showing off knowledge, or exploring universal themes.
🎭 Meta-Fiction: Books About Books in Post-Modern Literature
Meta-fiction is introduced as a post-modernist technique where a work of fiction is about the act of writing or books themselves. Examples like Muriel Spark's 'The Comforters' and Martin Amis's 'Money' are given to show how characters can be aware of their fictional nature, creating a sense of paranoia and self-referentiality. The script invites the audience to reflect on the intellectual intrigue of meta-fiction and its exploration of identity and reality.
🌐 The Death of the Real: Questioning Reality in Post-Modern Culture
The final section discusses the post-modernist theme of 'the death of the real', where reality is portrayed as illusory or manufactured, as seen in films like 'The Truman Show', 'The Matrix', and 'Inception'. The script explores the implications of this concept, presenting two contrasting reactions: one calling for a return to authentic reality, and the other suggesting a relaxed attitude towards the concept of authenticity. The audience is left to contemplate their own views on this topic.
📬 Closing Remarks and Invitation to Learn More
In the closing paragraph, Dr. Greedy thanks the audience for their attention and provides a brief overview of the key points discussed in the lecture. He invites those interested in English literature to visit the university's website and get in touch for more information, providing the web address and department email for further inquiries.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Post-modernism
💡Modernism
💡Nostalgia Mode
💡Intertextuality
💡Meta-Fiction
💡Stream of Consciousness
💡Death of the Real
💡Originality
💡Paranoia
💡Authenticity
Highlights
Introduction to post-modernism as a cultural and artistic movement emerging after World War II.
Post-modernism's controversial nature due to its varying definitions and opinions on its value.
Modernism described as an experimental movement with key figures like James Joyce and Virginia Woolf.
Modernist literature characterized by complexity, fragmentation, and innovation.
Visual comparison between traditional and modernist art to illustrate the shift in artistic styles.
James Joyce's 'Finnegans Wake' as an example of cryptic, stream-of-consciousness modernist writing.
The 'postmodern dilemma' for artists and writers following the extreme experiments of modernism.
Introduction of 'nostalgia mode' in post-modernism, exemplified by George Lucas's 'Star Wars'.
Intertextuality as a post-modernist technique, involving references or quotations from other texts.
Tom Stoppard's 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead' as an example of intertextuality with Shakespeare's 'Hamlet'.
Discussion on the importance of novelty and originality in art, and the acceptability of retelling old stories.
Metafiction defined as fiction about fiction, with examples from Muriel Spark and Martin Amis.
The concept of 'the death of the real' in post-modernism, questioning the authenticity of reality.
Films like 'The Truman Show', 'The Matrix', and 'Inception' illustrating the theme of reality's illusion.
Debate on the implications of reality not being as authentic as believed, and the response to this notion.
Invitation for listeners to engage with the study of English literature at Lancaster University.
Transcripts
hi everyone my name is dr michael greedy
i teach english literature at lancaster
university and what i have for you today
is a talk on post-modernism and
contemporary literature
what this talk is going to do is to
define post-modernism and to introduce
you to some key
post-modernist techniques and along the
way there's going to be some interactive
elements so there'll be some moments
when
where i invite you to to pause the
recording to have a thing
to have a chat if you're with other
people or to jot down some notes or
jot down some ideas um
okay so what is post-modernism this is a
term that refers to a style of art and
culture
that appeared in the aftermath of the
modernist movement so the modernist
movement
runs roughly 1890 to 1940 so
post-modernism is a kind of umbrella
term for
styles of art and culture broadly in the
aftermath
of the second world war it's a term that
can be applied to literature but also
to architecture to painting cinema
television and music and it's worth
knowing that postmodernism is a
controversial term and is controversial
in at least
two ways people don't always agree on
precisely what it means
and people can't agree on whether it is
a good thing or a bad thing
and my hope is that by the end of this
talk you'll have a clearer sense of what
i think it means
whether post-modernism is a good thing
or a bad thing obviously that's for you
to decide so
post-modernism to break it down
post-modernism implies that we're
dealing with something that comes in the
aftermath of modernism so
this begs the question what was
modernism
it's a term we use to describe the work
of a generation of experimental writers
and
artists of the late 19th and early 20th
century
in literature it's associated with
people like james joyce virginia woolf
t.s eliot and joseph conrad and some of
the characteristics of modernist writing
were complexity fragmentation
and aggressive innovation
to flesh out some of those
generalizations a bit and to introduce
you to to modernist culture i thought it
would be helpful
just to take a very quick look at the
visual arts so i want you to take a
quick look at an example of what i'm
going to call traditional art this is a
painting from 1762
and here is an example of modernist
answer this is a painting from
1913 so write slapback bang in the
modernist period let's put them together
um and what i'm going to invite you to
do now is pick a favorite
think of which one of these you prefer
think of which one of these
you'd like to hang on your wall you
might want to to pause the recording at
this moment and just think about that
and think about which you prefer
and why you prefer it
okay so clearly clearly this is a
question of taste there's no right and
wrong answer to to the question which of
these should you prefer
but i suppose one obvious point perhaps
that i'd like to underline about the
contrast between these two paintings is
whether you prefer the traditional
painting or whether you prefer the
modernist painting
the most obvious contrast between the
two is that it is
very obvious what the traditional
painting
is about it's a picture of a horse the
modernist painting is a picture of
well of what exactly it's abstract
it's fragmented it's experimental
it might though it might look great on
your wall you might like that kind of
almost not quite a jigsaw puzzle feel
but almost a kind of
random dynamic abstract feel that it has
to it so that's something as i say you
might like to hang on your wall can you
imagine
reading a book that had some of those
seemingly random
abstract scattered qualities to it
because this is what
the most experimental modernist writers
were trying to achieve so here is an
example
of modernist writing this is just a an
excerpt from the first page of james
joyce's monumental experimental novel
finnegan's wake i'm not going to read
this out to you
and it will become clear why as you cast
your eyes
over these words so just take a moment
perhaps to pause the recording
and just to read this excerpt to
yourself
okay so when you look at this quotation
what do you see
some of the terms that i would use to
describe joyce's writing
one is cryptic it's not immediately
clear
what he's writing about uh there is a
kind of
an affinity i think with with nonsense
poetry with the poetry of someone like
edward lee where you get this uh strange
kind of style which almost
is is semi-intelligible and semi
unintelligible almost like a picture
that comes in and out of focus
and joyce's style is often described as
a stream of consciousness style so
stream of consciousness is a kind of
uninterrupted tumble of thoughts as they
come out
almost unedited from the mind onto
the page so you get something that is
cryptic that is semi nonsensical
and that is stream of consciousness and
what you get is something that is
extraordinarily experimental and a real
challenge to read so can you imagine
here's a talking point can you imagine
now having seen a sample of finnegan's
weight of thinking yeah i'd like to sit
down
and read several hundred pages of that
style do you find it
intriguing and compelling or do you find
it off-putting
again that's something to pause over and
to think about
now whatever you think about that what
i'm calling a hyper
experimental style associated with
people like joyce
associated with the modernist movement
which kind of staked everything on being
abstract and innovative and new and
different and unexperimental whether you
whether you love it and you're inspired
by it or whether you find it off-putting
what it did was it raised a real really
difficult question
for for the next generation of writers
who came up
came up in the aftermath of modernism
which is how on earth
how on earth do you follow that so i'm
going to call this the postmodern
dilemma this is the dilemma broadly for
for writers working and artists working
in in the post-second world war period
and the dilemma on the question is this
where can art go
after the extreme experiments of
modernism
on the one hand we can't simply pretend
modernism never happened we can't maybe
ignore it and just go back
to the old-fashioned ways of doing
things so think of that
that picture of the guy with the horse
could we go back to producing paintings
like that it would seem
very very retrograde potentially
at the same time how do you compete with
or how do you surpass the absolute
novelty
of modernist art how can you be more
experimental than james joyce he seems
to have almost
set a kind of limit an unsurpassable
limit for
absolutely crazy uh innovative
experimental writing that is impossible
to exceed
so this is what post-modern artists in
different ways are grappling with the
post-modern dilemma
and when i talk you through as i'm about
to do some post-key
post-modernist techniques in different
ways they are they are a solution to
that dilemma of
what happens next where does art go next
after the
the modernist moment so i'm going to
talk about the nostalgia mode
intertextuality meta-fiction and the
death of the realists
key techniques and preoccupations
in modernist uh sorry post-modernist art
let's start with the nostalgia mode i'm
going to introduce this
using an example i want to to imagine
you're a film director
and you want to make a film and you
think i want to do something new but i'm
going to
draw on the films that inspire me and
i'm inspired by and i love
i love samurai movies but also
one aspect of culture i love is is myth
and
fairy tale rapunzel in the tower that
kind of storytelling
and i love westerns gunslingers i'm
really big on western so
so what can i do with those we could
take maybe the
uh the samurai uh and give him a
lightsaber and i could call him
a jedi knight and i could take the
the trope of the princess in the tower
and i could maybe update that a bit and
i could have a princess
in a space station and i could take the
gunslinger with his um
his black waistcoat that trademark look
and i could give him a kind of laser
blaster and i could call him
han solo and i put those together and
there you have it i have created star
wars
so this this is in a way me looking into
the way george lucas's imagination work
the director the creator
of star wars the star wars was a
revolutionary spectacular
science fiction film big on special
effects one of the first great modern
blockbusters so it was something
absolutely new
but as you peel below the surface of
star wars what you get
all right is is is actually something
that is a bit of a nostalgia trip it's
going back to
the samurai movies it's going back to
cowboy movies and it's going back
even further to myth and fairy tale so
this is one of the
the curious things about post-modernism
is it sort of goes forward
and backwards at the same time it wants
to do something new
but it does so with a kind of back to
the future
nostalgia quality to it
so the nostalgia mode isn't about
wanting to live
in the past it isn't wanting about
wanting to live in the good old days
it's more about wanting to bring back
the good old styles
and it's something you can see in
fashion so at the moment i think there's
a bit of a 90s revival
uh in fashion at the moment and fashion
is always reviving it's always going
back
excuse me to earlier decades for
inspiration
it's something you can see in television
so so some of the
popular tv shows at the moment like
stranger things or cobra kai
are revivals of 1980s tv shows and 1980s
film franchises or just 1980s styles
they're very kind of
steeped in 1980s nostalgia
and it's there in literature as well so
a famous example would be what is known
as a neo-victorian text so a
neo-victorian text
is a modern novel written in a victorian
style there are many examples and one of
the pioneering ones
is a novel by john fowles called the
french lieutenant's woman
it's a novel that was published in the
1960s but it's written in the style
of a novel from the 1860s so again it's
very much a back to the future
or a nostalgic approach to originality
and novelty
so this brings me to my next talking
point my next thinking point my point
for discussion
how much importance do you attach to
novelty and originality
in art is it okay for writers to tell
the same
old stories you know back to rapunzel
back to the story of
the seven samurai tell that let's tell
that again or back to the story of the
cowboy and the gunslinger let's tell
that again so is it okay for writers to
tell
the same stories over and over again or
should we always insist
on novelty would should we always demand
from art
something fresh and something new so
there we have a talking point you might
want to pause and think about that
okay the next postmodernist technique
that i want to describe in some detail
is the technique known as
intertextuality so intertextuality is
the presence of part of one
literary text in another literary text
excuse me
this could be a direct quotation it
could be an indirect reference
or a shared character or storyline so
for example
the title of ken key sees novel one flew
over the cuckoo's nest
that's an example of intertextuality
because the phrase
one flew over the cuckoo's nest is a
quotation from a children's rhyme
so that point where two texts overlap
the children's rhyme and piece is novel
it's a point of intertextual connection
or intertextual
overlap uh in a play like top girls by
carol churchill one of her characters
is called criselda that's a point of
intertextual overlap
because priselda is a character borrowed
from chaucer's clark's tale in the
canterbury tales
or if you think of the poetry of carol
dan duffy just to give you one more
example of intertextuality her poetry
poem sub is one that quotes famous
sayings
from 20th century culture while hippo
the laughter of stafford girls high
school
sorry the laughter of staff of girls
high quotes shakespeare
and william blake so all in all sorts of
ways once you start looking for it
intertextuality is quite a pervasive
phenomenon
in in modern contemporary and postmodern
writing but why is it there why is it so
prevalent so this is a talking point
why would an author decide to quote the
words of another author or the words of
another
literary text there are i think a great
many reasons why someone might choose to
do that
so i'm going to invite you to pause the
recording and write down as many
possible answers to these questions you
can think of
okay so when i was thinking about this
question i came up with various answers
this list isn't definitive
it isn't exhaustive but it can give you
a sense
of the motives for or the reasons for
intertextuality
in literature so why would you quote
some why would you quote another writer
it could be a way of paying tribute if
someone has put something more
eloquently than you believe you could
then you
you pay tribute to them by by quoting
their words
it can be a form of exhibitionism that
quoting someone is a way of flaunting
your knowledge aren't i clever i can
quote
aristotle or dante or shakespeare it can
be a way of showing off
and quoting can be a kind of screen or
mask
if you are reluctant to say something
open and definitive about a maybe a
delicate issue
perhaps you can take refuge behind
someone else's words
you can quote people for purposes of
mockery or parody sometimes the most
devastating way of
of teasing someone is just to quote
something that they've said to them
back to them and quotation can be a way
of making a point about originality
it can suggest that perhaps there's
nothing left to be said there's nothing
new to be said that all we can do
is is recycle and restate and quote
what's already been said and that's
something that's very characteristic of
post-modernist culture is this is
suspicion that the best we can do is
recycle what's already been said rather
than get
get hung up on the idea that there are
absolutely new
unprecedented stories to be told
finally um quotation intertextuality can
be a way of making a point
about universality that if you've had a
feeling or a sentiment or an emotion
or an experience that is there in jane
austen or shakespeare or dante or
wherever you can use that quotation to
suggest that there's something
there's something universal about this
experience it's not just unique to me or
to this moment but something that is
is sort of happens across time and that
perhaps
everyone can see themselves in
so i want to give you an example of
intertextuality
in action in slightly more detail and my
example is
tom stoppard's play rosencrantz and
guildenstern
are dead so this is a play that takes
its title
and its main characters and its
storyline from shakespeare's hamlet so
that line rosencrantz and given stoner
dead
it's a line from hamlet it's a line from
the most famous play
ever written arguably the most famous
work of literature
ever written but it's a play stopods
play what it does is it reimagines the
events of hamlet
as seen from the point of view of two of
its most marginal
unforgettable characters so rosencrantz
and guildenstern are very
kind of peripheral and secondary
characters in the play and they're
almost interchangeable you don't get
much of a sense of
of any difference between them so so
there they are on the edges of the play
and they die
and they're kind of as they say they're
quite marginal and they're quite
forgettable
but rosin cranks and guildenstern as a
play it
centers on them so it re-centers on what
was marginal
and what was almost forgotten
so intertextuality in the context of
star parts play is thus
an ingenious solution to the question of
originality
stop-loss play suggests that we can do
something new
with hamlet something which is almost
over familiar as a text we can do
something new with it
not by abandoning the past but by
revisiting it
with fresh eyes so not only has stoppard
created something new
he's also renewed our appreciation of
hamlet by
by enabling us to see the play just from
such an unexpected
perspective
okay the next key modernist
postmodernist technique that i want to
talk about
is metafiction and meta-fiction
is a concept that i'm going to introduce
once again via the visual arts
so once again i have two paintings for
you the first you'll all recognize
is the most probably the most famous
painting in art history which is mona
lisa by leonardo
da vinci and here we have another
painting
also called mona lisa this time by andy
warhol and he produces this
in 1963 so mona lisa number one mona
lisa number two what's the difference
i suppose the difference is the original
mona lisa
is a painting of a woman whereas andy
warhol's
mona lisa is a painting of a painting
of a woman so leonardo da vinci in his
painting is trying to represent
a human being is trying to represent
reality
whereas warhol is trying to represent
a representation of reality so there is
that
in a way that sense of of layers of
representation that warhol isn't giving
us a window onto the world or a window
onto
reality but using art to represent
art and this is something that is very
prevalent in post-modernist art
is the representation of representation
and a particular form that it often
takes in literature
is the form of what is called meta
fiction
so a meta fictional work is a work of
metafiction is a work of fiction
that is about books it's a book
about books rather than book about life
here are some examples
so there's a novel by muriel spark
called the comforters
and this is a novel in which the heroine
is a young woman called caroline rose
she's been bothered as she goes about
her daily business she's been bothered
by a persistent
tapping sound in the background
in time she realizes that what she's
hearing
is the sound of the typewriter keys on
which this novel
is being written so caroline rose is a
character in a novel
who realizes that she is a character
in a novel so the comforters
is a novel about life and human
relationships
but also it's a novel about novels it's
it's it's fiction about fiction so one
of the
earliest examples known to me of of of
post-modernist
meta fiction another example is a novel
by martin amis called
money so in in this novel the hero of
the novel is called john
self uh he goes to the pub and who
should he bump into
in the pub but martin amis himself so
martin amus is both
the author of the novel and a character
in the novel so john's self
and martin amus in this novel they
strike up an uneasy friendship
but self remains somewhat suspicious
of anus so both of these novels
really raise a question of paranoia the
sense of suddenly realizing that
you're part of the fiction that you're
being
created and you're being manipulated and
that
that paranoia about about your own
reality i think is something that is
quite a common uh experience in
post-modernist
writing and also the way these novels
are books about books fiction about
fiction it's almost as though
it's reading a post-modernist book is
like looking at
a snake eating its own tail there's
something
and critics of post-modernism would say
that it's almost like naval gazing
that the idea of fiction short should
surely to be
to to go out and confront the real world
rather than to
to gaze at itself in this kind of
inward looking way but for me i think
metafiction is always
intellectually intriguing i think the
questions it raises about
about identity about what is and isn't
real about
who tells the story of your life do you
do you get the choice to map it out
yourself or is that story being
sort of scripted for you by by higher
powers
these i think are really fascinating
questions that meta fiction
explores so i've mentioned that that
sense of paranoia that that you know
real kind of
almost systematic suspicion uh of the
world around you as
something that can be very prevalent in
post-modern writing and this brings me
to my
final key technique uh which i want to
talk about which is the idea of the
death
of the real and i'm going to illustrate
this using
movies rather than literature one of the
recurring themes of post-modernist
culture
is the suspicion that reality isn't real
it isn't a substantial
permanent and authentic as we believed
and there are various examples of of
modern cinema which often have
a kind of quite a science fiction flavor
to them
which deal with someone who cottons onto
the fact that the world around them
isn't as real as they thought it might
be so the truman showstone jim carrey is
about
a guy who one fine day realizes that his
entire life has been broadcast to a
worldwide
audience of millions he is the star of
his own
reality tv show so the the the life he
thought was real is actually being
manufactured
by the media and the matrix uh very well
known uh science fiction trilogy
in which people begin to cotton onto the
fact that what they thought was reality
is actually
a kind of high-tech illusion and then
christopher nolan's film
inception about people increasingly
unable to differentiate with any
confidence between what is
hard concrete reality and what is a kind
of dream
or a delusion so this is that moment
where you can't differentiate between
that was which is substantial and
authentic
and that which is synthetic or
manufactured or illusory that that
moment is is known as the death of the
real and it's a moment that you get over
and over again
in post-modernist culture um
what are the implications of the notion
that reality isn't real you know what
how should we react to this news
one way of reacting to it would be to
say well
we need to escape from illusions we
really it's time to wake up
to the real reality it's it's a crisis
that absolutely needs an urgent solution
so that would be one way of sort of
reacting to reports of of the death
of the real another way would be to say
well maybe we shouldn't get too
hung up on the idea of authenticity
and realness after all how do you
measure realness
and and this i think is particularly
relevant to debates
about um things like food or music
so for example people occasionally say i
don't like that music it's
it's manufactured it's synthetic and
when people say that
the implication is that there's some
kind of music which is
natural that just some somehow it grew
on a tree or it
emerged from them from the soil in this
kind of organic way
all music is is manufactured all music
is
is constructed and created by performers
using musical instruments
so when you think about music what
you've not got is is real music and
unreal music but maybe
different kinds of unreality so maybe
and there's a certain school of thought
in post-modernism which which is quite
laid back about the idea of the death of
the real and says that you know we
shouldn't
obsess about authenticity
so i've given you two very contradictory
answers
to this question what do i think well i
think i'm going to leave this
as a kind of cliffhanger because i'm
sure you will have
opinions of your own about the death of
the real and
about post-modernist techniques and
post-modernist culture
in general okay so thank you for
listening i hope that was a useful quick
uh whistlestop
whistlestop tour of post modernist
culture
if you want to know more about what it
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you for listening
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