Jean Baudrillard
“The
secret of theory is that truth doesn’t exist.”
‘A
condition in which “reality” has been replaced by simulacra’
Simulacra…
When a
sign loses its relation to reality, it then begins to simulate a simulation
Simulation:
The process in which a representation of something comes to replace the
thing which is actually being represented.
The representation then becomes more important than ‘the real thing’
Hyperreality:
Division between “real” and simulation has collapsed, therefore an
illusion of an object is no longer possible because the real object is no
longer there. E.g. celebrities who reach a point at which every aspect of their
lives is taken care of by someone else are said to live in a hyperreal world. They
lose the ability to interact with people on a normal level and are cocooned in
Hyperreality. Normal people often try to copy this. This is a common case in
which someone has become more engaged in the hyperreal world than the actual
real world. Play station games which have a lot of violence in them often have
a lot of bad press, the media believe that people will copy the actions which
they see in the video game.
He
described media culture as consumed by what he called ‘an effect of frantic
self-referentiality’ and stated that the implication of this is that as the
media doesn’t have to make any necessary reference to reality, we now face a
situation in which the image ‘bears no relation to any reality whatsoever’.In
other words, there is no such thing as reality, known as simulacra.
He said
that due to our apparent obsession with images, for instance parents filming
their children and the fact that there are images everywhere we look, we can
only experience the world through a form of filter of preconceptions and
expectations created in advance by culture.
Jean-François Lyotard
“Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodernism
as incredutity towards the metanarratives.”
He said that the older and larger scientific
explanations may no longer apply due to changes in culture and society, so
therefore newer theories need ti be developed that have more relevance to the
present.
His main focus was knowledge and therefore looks at
the scientific theories.
He said that postmodern science:
Ø Is no longer coherent
Ø Its contribution can no longer be valued for
its contribution towards human progress
Ø No longer follows the idea that the sum of
all knowledge will give us a perfect set of information
Ø Has becomes a mass of incompatible theories
that has no goal other than to further research
He said there is no certainty of ideas, instead
there are better or worse ways to interpret things. This is because of the
limited amount of knowledge that humans can understand, so humans will never
know this objective truth.
Fredric Jameson
“I would like…to characterize the postmodernic
experience of form with what will seem, I hope, a paradoxical slogan namely the
proposition that difference relates.”
Best known for his analysis of contemporary
cultural trends-he once described postmodernism as spatialisation of culture
under the pressure of organised capitalism.
Believes that postmodernism provides pastiche, humorously
referencing itself and other tests in an empty and meaningless circle. Pastiche
is distinct from parody, which uses irony, humour and intertexual reference to
make an underlying and purposeful point.
He categorized postmodernism into two parts:
pastiche and parody.
Pastiche mixes different past styles together, but
shows no understanding of history and the need to move forward, as it cannot
think of anything better to do. This reflects a society that has abandoned any
possibility of change. Jameson’s belief is that pastiche is taking over as
postmodernisms most dominant trait.
He said that parody is more common to modernism and
copies from old styles, but unlike pastiche takes a critical view of it. So
therefore it asks questions about it, rather than simply duplicating it.
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