Part 1:
What were two points from this week’s reading that stood out to you as particularly important and interesting?
Why so?
Two points from this week's reading that stand out as particularly important and interesting are postmodernism and gender performativity.
The first is about postmodernism. Postmodernism is a late 20th-century trend in Western philosophy that is distinguished by a general skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a widespread skepticism of reason; and an intense sensitivity to the role that ideology plays in establishing and sustaining political and economic power (Brian Duignan, 2022). Ideology, hegemony, and intertextuality are all part of the postmodernist analysis. Postmodernism often criticizes long-held beliefs about objective reality, value systems, human nature, and social progress, among others (Mike Bedard, 2020).
The idea of gender performativity holds that gender and gender roles are complicated social performances that one puts on in everyday life. Hegemonic versions of these performances underlie common perceptions of "man"/"masculine" and "woman"/"feminine." (Lindsay Wilson, P1).
Butler claims that the subject's very "actual" notion of a stable and coherent self is created via and within the parameters of performance processes. A gender is a form of imitation that doesn't match the original. In truth, it is a type of copying that, as a result of and in response to, itself, produces the exact idea of the original.
Part 2:
Choose one of your favorite postmodern media texts and explain the ways in which it is postmodern.
My favorite postmodern media text is Lyotard p the distrust of the metanarrative - The Simpsons. The Simpsons emphasize the variety of our culture and the difficulty in establishing moral authority in the pluralistic postmodern world by utilizing postmodern methods like fragmentation. modern. It expresses a mood that is strongly tied to Jean-Francois Lyotard's notion of meta-narratives, which casts doubt on general theories of how the universe works.
What are the reasons you like this text?
The Simpsons' and Lyotard's positions on systems that seek to use their authority to announce the ultimate truth are what drew me to this work in the first place. According to Lyotard, these meta-narratives—which seem to explain and reassure—are actually deceptive illusions created to conceal oppositions, differences, and pluralism. The Simpsons effectively adopt the same attitude, attacking each and everyone who perpetuates such hyper-narratives using a variety of implicit and explicit techniques. The Simpsons makes anti-authoritarianism one of its most significant recurrent themes as one means to do this (MRS C, 2019).
Do these reasons include its postmodern characteristics? Why/ Why not/How so?
These justifications include its postmodern traits. The idea that there is no such thing as absolute truth and that all reality is subjective is another postmodernist tenet. According to postmodernism, truth is not mirrored in how man perceives it, but rather is created as the mind seeks to make sense of its own unique reality. Truth and untruth are so equivalent. Since many concepts in postmodernism are novel, it might be challenging to correctly use terminologies like irony, playfulness, and black humor. Postmodern writers use intertextuality, historiographic metafiction, paranoia, and magical realism to their advantage (Literary articles, 2013).
References:
Duignan, B, Postmodernism, 6 September 2022, viewed 30 November 2022.
Literary articles, What is postmodernism? What are the Characteristics of Postmodern Literature?, 4 August 2013, viewed 30 November 2022.
Lindsay Wilson, Gender Performativity and Objectification, 2015, viewed 30 November 2022.Mike Bedard, What is Postmodernism? Definition and Examples for Filmmakers, 13 September 2020, viewed 30 November 2022.
Mr C, LYOTARD – THE DISTRUST OF THE METANARRATIVE – THE SIMPSONS?, 13 September 2019, viewed 30 November 2022.
