What are the arguments for saying that a text is postmodern or not?

The term postmodern refers to the ideology in art which succeeds modernist theory. Whilst modernist theory advocates clear narratives, distinct storylines, moral values and realism, postmodernism opposes all of this. The few beliefs the two theories share, is their progressive stance, though one might argue postmodernist texts reference and indicate acknowledgement of the malaise of modern society, though make little statement or criticism toward it as a modernist text might. Consider these two WWII films; Inglourious Basterds by Quentin Tarantino 2009 and Saving Private Ryan, Steven Spielberg, 1998. Both involve the efforts of American soldiers during the second world war, battling in occupied territory in Europe. Where they differ, is their moral stance. The latter film advocates humility, brotherhood and criticises warfare, exposing audiences to the harshness of the battlefield and the brave sacrifices soldiers must endure. In Inglourious Basterds, violence is glorified, even stylised throughout. The audience revel in the bloodshed provided by Brad Pitt and co as they embark on a Nazi-killing-spree. According to Jean Lyotard, postmodern theorist on morality, Saving Private Ryan would abide to the moral code of our meta narrative in which killing and warfare is universally accepted as wrong. This meta narrative is challenged by Tarantino in which the audience finds itself laughing as a Nazi is scalped or when the action of burning trapped individuals alive in a cinema appears glamorous. Another key difference, is that Tarantino is prepared to bend the laws of physics and physically change the outcome of history by the end of the film. Closely related to this, is Jean Baudrillards theory of non-reality or hypereality and the existence of a world of simulacra. As Tarantino in Inglourious Basterds, had the ability to alter history it poses the question, can history even exist? And thus, does reality even exist? This theme is the subject matter of Larry and Andy Wachowskis The Matrix, 1999, in which we discover our world is but a simulated reality, conjured up by sentient machines to fool the human population. This is a very postmodern belief as it challenges even the audiences trust in the existence of their world and imposes the idea of the lack of reality and therefore consequence. Non postmodern texts, or modernist texts, never challenge their security of the existence of existence. The idea of reality is again slurred in the theory of simulacra. Baudrillard believes we live in a world so full of images and symbols, that images have become mere images of images and therefore are nullified from reality. Reality is again challenged in what is known as self-referentiality, in which the postmodern text is actually aware of its own existence as a text. (Often in a humorous way). This occurs when a character may acknowledge the fact they are a TV serial like the Simpsons, or if a character seems to be aware of their audience and breaks the fourth wall. Selfreferentiality can also be more subtle and ironic. This is seen heavily in the Scream films. At one point, a character mentions their predicament is like being in a horror movie. The irony is, is that they are precisely in just that. A character also acknowledges that the arrival of fresh and mutilated corpses is so unoriginal, seemingly acknowledging the fact they are aware of the slasher-movie format they themselves are in. In the case of modernist texts, the characters world is the text itself, thus they will be unaware that the events that occur there are at all filmic.

Modernist texts also have a very ordered chronology. They tend to have an episodic narrative in which the audience observe all the action in real time of their occurrence. Tarantino often breaks apart this ordered narrative in much of his films. Pulp Fiction received high acclaim in its release and is famed for its non-linear storytelling. The story in fact, has multi-narratives with different characters and are all seemingly unrelated. The film is out of sequence, scenes from the end are shown first and vice versa. One would need to have watched the films ending scenes to understand how the story began. This disregard for order and chronology is an example of postmodernisms sense of ironic and playful humour. The use of multiple-narratives is also linked to another house style of postmodernism; double coding. This is where the text speaks to the audience in two different ways. In many animated films made by Pixar or Disney use doubling. Characters often make remarks which seem benign to the child audience and yet seem amusing to their parents watching. The characters in postmodern films are often rather different from those in modernist texts. Modernist texts prefer to abide to convention, with their heroes representing societys perception of a healthy, moral and handsome human being. Postmodern texts often have their own Postmodern hero. An example of this would be the characters of Mickey and Mallory in Oliver Stones Natural Born Killers. In this text, both are psychopathic serial killers yet are the main focus of the story and are given the support of the audience. This conflicts with modernist views of morality and their views on what a hero should represent. This again, is an example of postmodernisms often dark humour. Jameson, a postmodern theorist argues that postmodern films are concerned with all surface, no substance. And that they are concerned with the recycling of old images and commodities. It is acknowledged that postmodern texts are often nostalgic and retro in design. Death Proof another film by Tarantino epitomises this. The director intentionally damaged the reels of the film in order to give it a grainy and aged quality enforcing the 70s slasher genre feel he was aiming for. Jameson also states; one of the most significant features or practices of postmodernism today is pastiche. Pastiche is the humorous mimicking of existing styles or genres. Woody Allens Zelig is an example of pastiche. The film imitates a black and white freak documentary following a human chameleon who assimilates and changes into the appearance of those around him. The film uses documentary style editing and interviews in which the interviewees appearances have been humorously concealed. The film also uses a narrator, who speaks in the typical, factual and impartial way as those in documentaries. In essence, Zelig is a film which mocks the style of other films. To conclude, postmodern texts have many identifiable styles and motifs which separate them from the more mainstream modernist texts. These can be summarised as their blend of comedy with the surreal and their perversion of reality and morality. Postmodern texts tend to toy around with shared beliefs and challenges order. Unlike modernist texts, they are lacking in sympathy or critique. They acknowledge the faults of society yet are not urged to speak out against them. They are often very stylised, borrowing and laughing nostalgically at the past.