Chapter 7 - Postmodern Television Flashcards
What is irony?
Irony means opposite of what you are saying
E.g. Finding Nemo: ‘For a clown fish he’s not that funny’ - Bruce the Shark
What is self-reflexivity?
A text’s reflection on its own status as a text: for example, drawing attention to generic conventions, or revealing the technologies used to make a programme.
The show is self aware, and possibly breaks the fourth
E.g. House of Cards
What is intertextuality?
How one text draws on the meanings of another by referring to it, by allusion, quotation or parody, for example
E.g. The Pixar red, blue and yellow ball is found in toy rooms of many Pixar films
What is pastiche?
An artistic work in a style that imitates at of another work, artist, or period
E.g. Mr Burns restrained like Hannibal Lector
What is bricolage?
Construction or creation from a diverse range of available things
E.g. Night at the Museum brings together characters from a variety of different stories
What is the difference between Modernism and Postmodernism?
Modernism was about seeking to understand, analyse, categorise and rationalise the world to move forward. Postmodernism argues against grand narratives and the concept of one way of knowing the world
What is a basic meaning of Postmodern Television?
Postmodern Television style includes self-conscious playing with the conventions of other television programmes and the pastiche of earlier television forms
What is a sign?
In semiotics, something which communicates meaning, such as a word, an image or a sound
What is a code?
In semiotics, a system or set of rules that shapes how signs can be used, and therefore how meanings can be made and understood
What is one element that suggests television is inherently postmodern?
It forgets the past and history
It is obsessed with what is new and different
What suggests a strong presence of the past in television?
Past programmes are always being repeated
Contemporary programmes communicate about their genre and how they should be watched by referring to programmes which viewers already know
What does dialectic mean?
A term associated especially with Marxist theories, meaning a struggle between two opposing ideas
What does bourgeoise mean?
The middle class, who are owners of property and business
What important features does Lyotard’s notion of the postmodern include?
- The term postmodern is retrospectively attributed to things
- Being postmodern is a momentary condition which lasts for a short time
- The postmodern is not an epoch or period but is a characteristic of how culture products appear and are perceived
What is a discourse?
A particular use of language for a certain purpose in a certain context (like academic discourse or poetic discourse), and similarly, in television, a particular usage of television’s audio-visual ‘language’ (news programme discourse or nature documentary discourse, for instance).
