urgent: help: clueless-postmodernism?? (1 Viewer)

[skotgb]

fistly,
can anyone explain postmodernism?
the way i figure it is "post" means after
and "modern" is now, so it means the future?!


NOW
how is clueless a postmodern text???


please help

 

[Sarah168]

Clueless presents a post modernist setting. In 2oth century Beverly hills, we have the realisation of the American dream, a world driven by commerical considerations and worshipful of materialism. The mall rather than the church is seen as a sanctuary, a place to restore one's spirits. In the post modernist setting, Clueless appropriately is dominated by images of the excess, in a world driven by money and status. Essentially, a microcosm of contemporary american society.

hahaha, I'm not doing emma/clueless and I'm way too tired to think so Ill admit this is from a crib

hope it helps anyway...

 

[yulia]

I agree with the above - the way my english teacher described post-modernism to us is with the example of Bold and the Beautiful - it's mockery of other soap operas that come on earlier in the day, it's based on the modern/present - but it's so over-the-top and ridiculous - it's making fun of present day people/attitudes/situations...and that's how she described post-modernism to us...

 

[glycerine]

err, only not really.

post-modernism is a movement that happened as a reaction to modernism.

here are its main features:

1) intertextuality.
2) disbelief in the "grand narratives" (ie, there is no absolute truth, so it debunks things like the bible)
3) self awareness and referentiality
4) playfullness... ie postmodern texts don't take themselves too seriously, like the person above me said, bold and the beautiful is a good example
5) doesn't believe that one form of art is instrinsically superior to another... ie, it doesn't say "well heart of darkness is harder to understand than, say, wild swans, therefore it is better"
6) often plays with genre and form
7) believes that reality is constructed by language (so in clueless's sense, this would be the visual language of the excesses of mid-90s america)

honestly, post modernism takes a while to really get your head around, and i wouldn't devote too much time to it unless you've already done it in extension one. it only really clicked for me at the end of last term.

 

[Sarah168]

HA! and my post was directly ripped off from a crib! goes to show that we should tread carefully around study guides...

 

[glycerine]

hahaha yes, i dont recommend relying on study guides when it comes to pomo

 

[Sarah168]

Yeah..but I have barely any knowledge on clueless/emma OR post modernism so I didnt have any idea about what the hell i was reading anyway...for ppl who ARE doing emma/clueless [or post modernism in Ext1] you should have picked up on it!!