The Last Theorists!

Lyotard

Bathes

Hall

Jameson

Foucault

Attacking the ‘Grand Narrative’

What grand narrative can be derived from the common Narratives/Plots/Stories

Not attacking the ideas about narrative structure but the underlying moral values and judgment

Jean Francois Lyotard

Lyotard

French Philosopher

His views on the ‘Postmodern Condition’

became famous in the 1970’s

First person to use the term Postmodern

in the non art world

The Post Modern Condition

“Simplifying to the extreme, I define postmodern as incredulity towards

grand-narratives”

Noun - The state of being unwilling or unable to believe something.

Synonyms - disbelief - unbelief - scepticism - distrust - mistrust

“A self does not amount to much, but no self is an island; each exists in a

fabric of relations that is now more complex and mobile than ever before.”

Lyotard argues that we have became more alert to difference, diversity etc

and instead we are moving to micro-narratives where we each have our

own ‘narrative’ and our society is made up of all our narrative, not one

‘grand narrative’

Meta Narrative - Grand Narrative-Truth - Ideology

This was an idea shared in part by Strinati

“Postmodernism denies there can be any single truth/reality”....

Baudrillard also shared this idea “With the truth you need to get rid

of it as soon as possible....

One key Media Concept is Ideology

A system of ideas and ideals, esp. one that forms the basis of

economic or political policy: "The ideas and manner of thinking

of a group, social class, or individual

Hollywood and the Grand-Narrative

Handout

Examples from Media texts you know

The Grand Narrative Examples

Comedy – Confusion/Issue/Problem to be over come in order for Love to happen.

Shaun of the Dead, Inbetweeners, Love Actually, Notting Hill,

27 Dresses, The Proposal, 50 First Dates, The Holiday

Overcoming the Monster in order to restore peace LOTR, King Kong, Pacific Rim, Lake Placid, Scooby Doo???,

Piranha, War of the Worlds, I, Robot, World War Z, Zombie

Films, Godzilla

Tragedy – The flaws of humans cause bad things to happen

LOTR, I am Legend, The Happening, 2012, Knowing, Day after

Tomorrow, Planet of the Apes, Titanic

Transformation – Rags to Riches tales with happy ending Oliver, Cinderella, Alvin and the Chipmunks, LOTR? Harry

Potter, Pretty Woman

Voyage and Return – You need to journey to restore normality

LOTR, Ocean’s films, Star Wars, Star Trek Into Darkness, Life

of Pi, Pirates of the C

The Quest – Heroes fighting, striving to do what is right and good

Shrek, Frozen, LOTR, Every Disney film EVER

Rebirth or self discovery – making yourself and your world better, safer.

Shrek, The Shawshank Redemption, Frozen, American History

X

What is the moral lesson behind these Grand Narrative?

The Grand Narrative The Moral Lesson/ Ideology/ Truth

Comedy – Confusion/Issue/Problem to be over come in order for Love to happen.

We will all be happy once we have found true love, Love will

overcome, Everyone needs to have love to be happy.

Overcoming the Monster in order to restore peace

Tragedy – The flaws of humans cause bad things to happen

Transformation – Rags to Riches tales with happy ending

Voyage and Return – You need to journey to restore normality

The Quest – Heroes fighting, striving to do what is right and good

Rebirth or self discovery – making yourself and your world better, safer.

Film/TV that reject the Grand

Narrative

Explain how they don’t fit.

But isn’t Post Modernism just another Grand

Narrative

• ‘Ironically, The Post Modern Condition seems to offer its

own grand narrative in the story of the decline of the

meta narrative’

• Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Why?

Why not?

• What are some other problems/criticism of Pomo?

Bathes –Semiotics

• The study of signs and symbols (denotative and connotative)

• Bathes argues that the interpretation of meaning lies with the audience and depends on the experiences, interests, beliefs and culture they bring with them (multiple meanings)

• There is no longer a dominate ideology/ Grand narrative that we all perceive or a standard way in which we read a text.

Hall

• Hall again focuses on the audience and the different reading they can make of a text

• But in this case individuality is downplayed and it is more about the relationship between the audience and the producer/institution making the text. (Think back to the Audience part of ‘Media Concepts’)

• The Producer will have in mind a way in which they want their text to be read and we as an audience can either accept or reject that reading

Hall

• Hegemonic Reading– Reader accepts and reproduces the preferred

meanings of the text (as set by the ‘institution’)

• Negotiated Reading– Reader broadly accepts the preferred reading but

resists or modifies elements

• Oppositional Reading– Reader understands the preferred reading but

rejects it

Hall

Reading FOTC Inception Lady Gaga Supernatural

Hegemonic

Negotiated

Oppositional

Jameson

• Pomo for Jameson is all about the modern day and how it has lost connects to the past.

• In regards to ‘reality’ Jameson argues that we make no effort to get to know the ‘real’ but instead like and get to know the exaggerated replicas of people (simulacra Hyperreality)– Less on concern about the past– The entertainment value is more important than historical

accuracy/ meaning eg Music Vidoes– ‘Historical deafness’– We live in the here and now (instantaneous) – Depthlessness: there is not deep thought/meaning/

ideology anymore

Jameson - Yes

Jameson - No

Foucault • Panopitcalisation – gaining power through

watching

• We live in a society where we are always being watched and want to be watched

• We like watching other people

Foucault

The Guardian