"Postmodern media break the rules of representation". Discuss.

Postmodern media wants you to know that it has been created and is hence not real, highlighting how it extensively breaks the rules of representation. Whilst Postmodernists wish to remove Binary Opposites, therefore there is no place for lifelike representations such as abled and disabled. It fre uently breaks the rules of representation through a disregard and manipulation of generic conventions, those of which might be expected in !odernist texts. !odernism itself was a philosophical movement in the arts that along with cultural trends and changes arose from wide" scale and far reaching transformation in western society in the late #$th and early %&th centuries, Postmodernism being its transcending movement. 'rive ()icolas Winding *efn %&##+, shows this by tampering with the audiences cultural knowledge, somewhat creating a parallel universe, one of ,yperreality in which reality is replaced by simulacraargues. -he car chases in the film exemplify this by the way that the ma.ority of the audience will have never witnessed or experienced such an event, so what they are seeing is /imulacra, of which 0iske says people will try to convert into another text to make sense of it. Whilst if the audience have witnessed a car chase it is unlikely to be up to the intensity and hyperbolic nature of what the film portrays, identifying how Postmodern media breaks the rules of representations. !eanwhile the ,yperreality of the car chases is heavily reminiscent of the 1rand -heft 2uto video game series, (as are the sets used and the pink text+, itself part of a media which creates a dis.unctive view of reality. !oreover the combination of two different mediums (a film and a video game+ shows the disregard for representation as they are combined together in order to create a new reality. 2dditionally drive incorporates a variety of different genres, having the same destructive effect upon the rules of representation. 'rive has a gangster genre due to the grotes ue violence, such as the elevator scene where the 3kid4 (*yan 1osling+ kicks someone to death. ,owever the relationship expressed between the 3kid4 and Irene (5arey !ulligan+ hints at more of romantic genre. 2 further genre applicable to 'rive is remarkably that of a fairy tale, with the film incorporating all the characters associated with a fairy"tale. Irene plays a princess, whilst there are 3bad guys4 in the shape of the gangsters, with the 3kid4 playing the so called hero. ,owever it could be argued that his violent actions display more of a monster, not a hero. -his clash between the genres demonstrated in 'rive can be seen as Postmodern, as conventionally a film would focus on one genre, with perhaps reference to sub"genres. 2lthough 'rive breaks the rules of representation, preventing the audience from categorising the film into a genre category. 0urthermore 'errida believes that no text is genreless, something that does apply to drive and backs up the 0iske4s theory that we will try and convert reality into texts we have already seen, such as commentators of $6## describing it as 7like a movie8.

2lso 'rive can be viewed as Bricolage, due the working of many genres into one single film. /uch a breakdown of a text that includes numerous genres and mediums is a form of Pastiche. -his is displayed within the films representation of 9os 2ngeles, often from a bird4s eye view, often associated with :ideo games, including the aforementioned 1rand -heft 2uto. Whilst the representation of 9.2. as deserted challenges the audiences perceptions and expectations of what they imagine being a glamorous, vibrant place. ,ere rules of representation are removed and a simulated world is presented which goes against the grain of the audiences expectations of 9.2. challenging their thinking. Inglorious Basterds (;uentin -arantino, %&&$+ is a film which almost exclusively re.ects the principles of representation. -ake the very start of the film, the opening is a pastiche of -he /ound of !usic (*obert Wise, #$<=+, which also displays irony,, as such a film was about freedom and the worlds goodness, whereas -arantino4s picture opens with the killing of a >ewish family. -he idealist scene this is set in is a far cry from what we expect to see, showing the deconstruction of representation. 2nother example is of 32ldo *aine4 played by Brad Pitt. ,e plays an 2merican solider but abolishes normal representations of such a figure by at all times having perfect hair and a pristine uniform, despite being involved in a fight his white bla?er remains immaculate, further highlighting representation being disregarded. 2s well he has an exaggerated -ennessee accent, displaying the pictures hyperrealty because it is over the top and is unrealistic. -his idea of being unrealistic is typical of postmodern media and its attempt to make you know it has been created, something Inglorious Basterds incorporates further through /elf"reflexivity. -his gives the acknowledgement to the audience that the text is only a construction, holding no representation to the real world. /uch a feature is shown evidently with a bird4s eye view during /hoshanna4s preparation for the )a?i 0ilm Premiere. -arantino explicitly showing scenes as sets and not real places, deliberately deconstructing the films set and representation, reminding the audience of its fictional nature. 2 different example is @/ comedy 0light of the 5onchords, where a real performing two man band (Bret !cAen?ie and >ermaine 5lement+ play fictional versions of themselves, in a duo from )ew Bealand. -his 3playing of themselves4 immediately breaks the rules of representation, as the representation given is completely false, because in reality they are both very successful musicians, displaying irony. !oreover despite being unsuccessful in the sitcom, they have one incessant obsessed fan !el (Aristen /chaal+ and a manager !urray (*hys 'arby+, who treat the band as if world famous. !el acts as a groupie and devoted fan, with !urray taking notes at band meetings, as if they are world stars who need to be controlled. 'uring the episode 3)ew 0ans4 !urray installs cameras linked to online webcams in the bands home, this big brother style approach shows how Postmodern media ignores rules of

*epresentation because despite being represented as a bad band, they are treated by !urray (and !el+ as being stars. It can be viewed as a variation of !etatextuality (critical commentary of one text on another+ as they are playing mocked versions of themselves, when in reality they are far from the representation given and are very successful. 0urthermore lots of Postmodern music plays with the rules of *epresentation. 'anger !ouse4s 1rey album, it was a combination of the Beatles White 2lbum and >ay B4s Black 2lbum, very different artists, eras and genres. -he whole album was based on pre"existing work, but was mixed together to create something new, by paying ,omage to both the existing artists, -his collaboration of such different genres (as with 'rive+ again represents the disregard for representation, with the prevention of a specific genre classification. Baudrillards theory of simulation typifies how Postmodern media breaks the rules of representation. /imulation he sees as the process of where things come to replace the things being represented, in which such representations become more important than the real thing. -o an extent this reflects what *ene !agritte painted in his #$%C work called 3-he -reachery of Images4. !agritte captioned an arrangement of pain on a canvas with the denotative words, 75eci n4est pas une pipe8 (-his is not our pipe+. Our eyes tell us it is a pipe because we are used to decoding images, colour and perspectiveD but it is not a pipe for it cannot be smoked, as it is simply a painting of what we envisage to be a pipe. -herefore the audience comes to perceive through the media a world or in this case text that appears to be 3real4 but is not. In the future Postmodern media is unlikely to halt its destruction of *epresentation, because of how it clashes genres, as well as using Bricolage and Pastiche to create texts that play with meaning, but most importantly reality. 2 loss of such disregard for *epresentation would surely spell the end for Postmodern media, as it is an inherent part of its ')2 and would see a return to more modernist texts of generic convention. In conclusion Postmodern media is renowned for its breaking of representation, across various mediums. In theory such texts have to break the rules as their traits of intertextuality, Bricolage and Pastiche lead to the deconstruction of conventional representations and expectations, whilst the collaboration of previous texts aids this deconstruction, for example eliminating single genre films and music.