C&N Coursework, Context & Narrative Blog, HNC Photography, Part 2: Narrative, Project 2: Image and Text
Postmodernism and Narrative
When I hear the term PostModern I immediately think of Pulp Fiction (Dir. Quentin Tarantino, 1994). This film is filled with postmodern tropes:
- a disregard of linear narrative structure- the end is at the beginning and continues jump around
- Intertextuality mixing of Genres and the crossovers between other films e.g. Tarantino own Reservoir Dogs, and The Assassin; the 50’s theme of Jack Rabbit Slims and the question that could John Travolta character be the future of Tony in Saturday Night Fever.
- Pulp Fiction Pastiche several other films Pyscho, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Saturday Night Fever
- Tonally the mood of the film changes from scene to scene from offhand cold murder to the tragedy of Vincent’s death on the toilet.
Overall Tarantino wants the audience “to work thing out for themselves” as Barths suggested in Death of the Author, to fill in the gaps.
Wells (2015) defines postmodern as an important concept which emerged in the mid-1980’s which is hard to define. Obstensively it refers to the belief that modernism had run its course and had been replaced by new forms of social organisation. Central to this was the development of information networks on a global scale, allowing capital, idea and information to flow freely. Weakening national boundaries and changes how to experience the world. If this was how post-modernism was thought in mid1980’s we are undoubtedly living in a post-modernist world now we are able to share selfies and pictures of our lunch with all around us and the global from our phones.
This world of being able to share everything allows the narrative of our lives to be as non-linear as Pulp Fiction; we are able to access information on everything and anything instantly as we work, we are able to reference other genres without having to leave the local that we are shooting the imagine – with a quick google search on your iPhone (other smartphones are available) we can check a scene from North by Northwest for example and reference that in our selfie.
However, we need to caption these ideas carefully this is using the cyber equivalent a #hashtag to allow this information to be transferred effectively as just with caption the guide the audience to the intended meaning the #hashtag guides the search engines (google) to our images, because search engines (e.g. Google) can not yet interpret images.
Post-modern gives the freedom to explore the world around in a non-linear fashion, acknowledges that there is not always a defined meaning to a piece of art and has allowed Feminist art to gain a wider voice in the art world that was highly patriarchal.
Relating this pack to the artists referenced in the course material Sophie Calle’s Take Care of Yourself and Sophy Rickett’s Objects in the Field both artists have used this postmodern world to share their stories together along their images to make accessible and interesting pieces of work. Without the internet and evolution of social media, it would not have been possible for them to have reached such wide audiences and the fact that the narrative they have shared is engaging help ties the images of both artist together,
References
Wells, L. (2015). Photography: A Critical Introduction. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Prezi.com. (2015). Postmodernism in Pulp Fiction. [online] Available at: https://prezi.com/_-bqkquffrh8/postmodernism-in-pulp-fiction/ [Accessed 10 Feb. 2018].
The Art Story. (2018). Postmodern Art – Modern Art Terms and Concepts. [online] Available at: http://www.theartstory.org/definition-postmodernism.htm [Accessed 13 Feb. 2018].