1. Define postmodern media, with examples.
Postmodern media rejects the traditional movement of modernism, a movement that occurred
in the late 19th
century; driven by utopian ideal visions of human life as the basis. Postmodern
media often opposes the traditional “grand narratives” that associated itself with totalising
forms such as love, politics and religion used to ‘understand’ reality. Instead, postmodern
media often subverts and disregards conventions such as time, space and narrative to create a
deliberate distortion of reality to create a ‘hyper reality’. Rather, it adopts referential
techniques such as bricolage and pastiche with the intention of being read by a literate
audience.
Quentin Tarantino’s war film ‘Inglorious Basterds’ exemplifies this rejection, creating a
distorted reality that challenges modernist utopias through manipulating the audience’s
perception of war. The film immediately creates a disjunctive style seen through the use of
visible Chapters, a convention associated with the medium of literature texts. A distinct hyper
reality is therefore created as the self-conscious form of pastiche addresses to the audience
that it is a non-linear narrative, a stylist technique associated with postmodernism. This is
reinforced through the introductory title of “Once upon a time in Nazi-Occupied France…”,
again a direct reference to the fairy tale genre. This complies with Levi-Strauss’ theory of
addition within the concept of bricolage as Tarantino has taken socially recognisable ‘debris’
from the fairy tale genre and combined it with the war film. This also adheres to Genette’s
theory of hypotextuality as Tarantino has modified the hypotext of ‘fairy tales’ and applied it
to the audience’s preconceived idea of expected violence, challenging modernist utopian
visions and disregarding the boundaries of the war genre. Structuralist thinking is challenged
again through the use of yellow text for subtitles and titles, indicating Tarantino’s signature
postmodernist style by distancing himself from the conventional white text choice. This
supports theorists such as Strinati that define postmodernism as ‘style over content’ as it
strikes the literate audience as unusual and breaks the rules of the war genre.
Postmodern media often associates itself with the concept of ‘self-reflexivity’ by
acknowledging that it is in fact a constructed text. This is primarily evident through
Tarantino’s use of a bird’s eye view during Shoshanna’s preparation for the Nazi film premiere
of ‘Nation’s Pride’. The camera follows Shoshanna as she makes her way across the halls,
exposing the construction of the walls and layouts of the rooms as a film set. This direct
deconstruction of the film set reinforces to the audience that the war film is entirely fictional
and in no way does it represent the ‘reality’ with that they are familiar. Baudrillard’s developed
idea of hyper reality is a significant feature within this scene as the audience, as well as the
characters, are aware they are experiencing a prepared reality as chosen by the director of
which they are conscious of. This acknowledgement of the film set’s façade is a feature which
defines postmodernist texts as it subverts the unconscious principles which is often associated
with modernist texts.
Additionally, postmodern media, as previously seen, adopts various ‘debris’ from other media
to create a distinct mixture of genres, often challenging these, to create a completely new text.
“Drive” directed by Nicolas Winding Refn is a prime example as the film’s narrative is a direct
reference to Grimm’s Fairy Tales. This can be seen within the structure of the character, “The

2. Kid”, being the protagonist and supposed “hero” with his love interest Irene being the “damsel
in distress”. Genette’s theory of hypotextuality is applicable here as the utopian vision of a
fairy tale, of which modernist texts are the basis for, challenges the disequilibrium “The Kid”
faces throughout the film as he is revealed to have a disjunctive violent persona. The rejection
of western moralistic narratives, as suggested by Lyotard, where the hero ‘gets’ the girl is
evident here. “The Kid”, during the finale of the film shows that he has been stabbed but a
drive into L.A’s polluted streets once more, rejecting utopian conclusions of films as he does
not ‘win’ Irene. Instead, Baudrillard’s circular referentiality is compliant with this sequence as
it can be argued that The Kid is experiencing the same disequilibrium as he was at the
beginning of the film, unable to escape his violent past. Therefore the audience can recognise
the breaking of modernist principles as the unusual representation of no ‘happy ending’ can be
defined a postmodern.
Postmodern media within television is a popular form, which can be seen in the US sitcom
‘Family Guy’, renowned for being controversial and highlighting the lack of morality. An
example of this can be seen within the episode “Blue Harvest” which was an implicit parodying
of the 1977 film “Stars Wars Episode IV: A New Hope”. This is compliant with Genette’s theory
of metatextuality as the entire text is an implicit commentary on the Star Wars franchise,
however modifying the original narrative to a continuous self-reflexive one. The film’s title “A
long time ago but somehow in the future” rejects traditional grand narrative, as it suggests
that the episode has not progressed in time nor moved backwards. This suggests that the
narrative can go in any direction and is unpredictable, favouring Lyotard’s idea of a ‘micro-
narrative’. Therefore this can be defined as postmodern as modernist texts often associated
itself with the progressive linear narrative, whereas this text clearly rejects this idea. This non-
linear narrative is highlighted when Luke Skywalker, played by the character Chris, breaks the
‘fourth wall’ and introduced the London Symphony Orchestra and composer John Williams.
This form of self-reflexivity creates a distinct hyper reality through its disjunctive style,
especially as it provides completely irrelevant information that will have no effect on the
progress of the narrative; therefore no following conventional modernist narratives.
Postmodern music, like both film and TV, is irrespective of boundaries and often divulges into
other genres whilst being heavily referential which is reliant on the audience’s semic
knowledge to decode this. The artist ‘Lady Gaga’ demonstrates this idea through her features
on the American TV show “The Simpsons”. Here, she sings a song called “Superstar” with the
character Lisa Simpson, conforming to the media’s representation of her as ‘weird’ to create a
self-mocking humour. This supports theorists such as Fiske’s semic code as it is reliant on the
audience’s cultural knowledge of herself in order for it to be understood. Additionally, this
supports Kramer’s definition of postmodern music that it is, on some level and in some way,
ironic. This challenges modernist texts as often they would avoid self-conscious recognition as
it would be no longer replicate the ‘reality’ the audience understand.
Overall postmodern media often rejects traditional ideas of art replicating nature and reality,
often defying this by placing a huge emphasis on construction fiction rather than reality.
Therefore it can be defined as an entirely new simulation of reality, and arguably that modern
literate audiences prefer.