Postmodernism

While postmodernism is a loosely-defined set of perspectives rather than a unified movement, academic accounts locate its origins in a crisis of authority—a questioning of western culture’s most basic beliefs regarding science, progress, social institutions and the nature of truth. These themes ultimately take shape in the ideologies and styles of American popular culture, and we’ve read about them in studies from two critics.
Show your knowledge of the postmodernist film/TV criticism that we’ve read in our second essay exam by 1) explaining 3 of the 4 features listed below; 2) discussing the ways in which these features are visible in one or more film or other pop culture texts, and 3) reflecting on the relevance of these ideas for 21st century American society. Feel free to address each of these objectives separately or create a continuous essay. Please note that Robocop can’t count as an example because it will have been so thoroughly covered in the online discussion.
a) quotationalism in (in Matheson)
b) paranoid horror (in Tudor)
c) Pinedo: 5 traits of PM, the postmodern world (in Tudor)
d) hyper-ironism (in Matheson)
Make good use of the selections below, the films or other pop culture texts that you’re writing about, but don’t use scholarly work outside of our AMST 322 readings, as they’re not what you’re being evaluated on..
Tudor, Andrew. “From Paranoia to Postmodernism? The Horror Movie in Late Modern Society.” Genre and Contemporary Hollywood. Edited by Stephen Neale. British Film Institute, 2002. pp 105-116.
Matheson, Carl. “The Simpsons, Hyper-Irony, and the Meaning of Life.” Signs of Life in the U.S.A., 8th Edition. Edited by Sonia Maasik and Jack Solomon. Bedford/St. Martins, 2014. pp. 287-299.