Is postmodernism a period a style or set of styles an ethos,
a set of sensibilities or a politics of cultural experience and production in
which style and image predominate? Postmodernism. Unlike modernism, has been
such a mass cultural phenomenon that we probably all know something about it.
In 1988 MTV launched Postmodern TV, a program whose title and context clues us
in to the fact that postmodernism is at home with the very popular culture so
criticized and disdained by many modernist cultural critics and producers.
Postmodernism may not be about style alone, but style is one of the chief
characteristics of a postmodern ethos. The term” postmodern” has been used to
describe fashions, and was even used to describe those politicians in the 1990s
that used the media quite heavily in their campaigns. It can be argued, along
the lines suggested by Baudrillard’s concept of simulacra, that they used the
media to produce something other than simply representations of themselves.
They actually produced themselves through myriad media images and texts,
Generating identities as simularcrahyperreal
identities with no recourse back to a real person, their composite media
image being more real than real. Whereas modernist art and theory were
distinguished by their elitism toward media and the popular postmodernism has
been at one with the popular form its origins. Although postmodernism is not
only style and image, it relies heavily on style and image to produce its
words. In the period associated with late (post- World War II) modernist
thinking and movements, critics spoke from positions they imagined to be
outside –specifically, politically of aesthetically above – popular culture in
order to criticize that culture, or to reveal the ideological investments
hidden beneath the glitzy surface of representations and images.
Postmodernism dispels the idea that surface does not contain
meaning in itself, or that structures lie beneath the mask of surface
appearances. The modernist way of thinking about structure did not stop with
the emergence of postmodernism; this approach to art, criticism and theory
continues throughout the 1980s and 1990s overlapping with tendencies associated
with the postmodern critical sensibility is the acknowledgement within the
latter that we cannot occupy a position outside of the milieu we analyze; we cannot
get beneath the surface t find something more real or more true. As postmodern
theorist Santiago Colas puts it, “we may attempt to forget or ignore mass
culture, but it will neither forget nor ignore us.” Postmodernism complicates
the divisions between high and low culture, elite and mass consciousness, and
in doing so makes it impossible to occupy a critical viewpoint on culture from
outside or above it.
This attitude is not limited to criticism. It can be found
even within advertising. We can identify a postmodern sensibility, for example,
in those advertisements that give us a fragmented cryptic set of images or
story line followed by a brief and discrete logo on the screen, or tucked into
the corner of the print ad image. No product no mention of company name s
needed for the viewer who is so thoroughly steeped in the world of media and
consumption. Indeed, it would be an insult for manufacturers to think they
needed the prompting of goods or direct signifiers of the company in an address
to the consumer who lives its products as a part of his or her identity.
Moreover these advertisements need not sell their viewers on function or
quality. They promote their goods as embodiments of style –style we can live by
wearing or using these products. One of the aspects of postmodernism we are
getting at here, then, is that it entails a reflexive recognition of our lived
relation within the world of the simulacra. This is a world lived at the level
of consumption, images, media and the popular.
4.
Which of the following is /are true of post-
modernism?
A.
It goes beyond the surface to find deeper
meanings inside.
B.
In post- modernism, one can become are outside
spectator yet not participate in it, so as to analyze it.
A.
A only
B.
A
and B
C.
B only
D.
Neither A
nor B
5.
The post –modern politicians using media in
their campaigns
A.
Exploited it heavily to project a distorted
public image of themselves.
B.
Exploited it massively to create an image
different from their real one
C.
To launch attacks on their political rivals.
D.
None of these.
6.
The author is mainly concerned with
A.
Discussing different aspects of post- modernism
and popular culture.
B.
Outlining the facets of post-modernism and
modernism.
C.
Talking about the impact of post- modernism on
media, especially TV.
D.
Contrasting modernism and post-modernism.
7.
A post – modernist sensibility in the realm of
advertising is exemplified by
A.
A sketchy ad without any images.
B.
A brief ad without any storyline
C.
An ad, followed by a logo, but no product or
company name.
D.
Ads appealing to intangible attributes of the
products advertised.
8.
Which of the following best describes the
structure of the above article?
A.
The passage discusses a new idea, followed by
several views and examples to support it.
B.
It discusses the salient points of a theory and
then gives examples to support it.
C.
It is put more in the nature of questions, which are left unanswered
D.
The passage is presented in the form of a
compromise between competing theories on a topic.
Answer:
4.
C please
refers to the first line of the third paragraph along with the second sentence.
5.
B “….
They used the media to produce something other than simply representations of
themselves”.
6.
D The
author works towards highlighting the difference between modernism and post-
modernism. Hence D.
7.
A The beginning
lines of the third paragraph amply support the idea.
8.
A The
author tries to show the differences between modernism and post- modernism and
illustrate them through examples. Hence A.
No comments:
Post a Comment