MEDIA LANGUAGE THEORY #5:

Postmodernism
Jean Baudrillard
KEY CONCEPT: Modernism
Modernism
= a period of time in the 19th and early 20th century
when industrialisation caused widespread cultural and
economic upheaval. This caused a deliberate
philosophical and practical departure from the past in
the arts and literature.
‘Woman Walking Downstairs’
(Eadweard Muybridge, 1887)
Modernist, because it made use of
the new technology (cameras)

‘Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2’

(Marcel Duchamp, 1912)
Modernist, because it was abstract
and rejected the ‘realism’ of the past
KEY CONCEPT: Postmodernism
Postmodernism
= a deliberate philosophical and practical departure
from modernism. Postmodernism developed in the
course of the mid 20th century and continues in culture
and society today.
‘Superman Descending a Staircase’
(artist and date unknown)
Postmodern, because it uses
intertextuality to parody another text

‘Nude Descending a Staircase’

(Mel Ramos, 2012)
Postmodern, because it is a copy of a
copy without any relation to the original
POSTMODERNISM: making sense?
1887 2012

‘Nude Descending a ‘Superman Descending a ‘Nude Descending a

‘Woman Walking Downstairs’
Staircase, No. 2’ (Marcel Staircase’ Staircase’
(Eadweard Muybridge, 1887)
Duchamp, 1912) (artist and date unknown) (Mel Ramos, 2012)

In your own words write down how today we exist in a

postmodern world, using the above images as examples.
KEY TERM: simulacra
simulacra
= the postmodern copy; reproduced and
manipulated to the point that it no longer
resembles its original

“successive phases of the image: it is the reflection of

a profound reality; it masks and denatures a profound
reality; it masks the absence of a profound reality; it
has no relation to any reality whatsoever- it is its own
pure simulacrum” – Jean Baudrillard
KEY TERM: hyperreality
Hyperreal
= where reality and fiction are indistinguishable
= ‘more than’ real; improving upon reality

“it is the generation by models of a real without origin or

reality: a hyperreal”
“something has disappeared: the sovereign difference,
between one and the other, that constituted the charm of
abstraction”
“a hyperreal… sheltered from the imaginary, and from any
distinction between the real and the imaginary”
– Jean Baudrillard
KEY TERM: hyperreality

Baudrillard created four steps of reproduction:

1. basic reflection of reality

2. perversion of reality

3. pretence of reality (where there is no model)

4. simulacrum, which "bears no relation to any reality

whatsoever".

– Jean Baudrillard
 TASK: Applying simulacra and hyperreality
In groups, write down how the below images
reflect Baudrillard’s theory of postmodernism:
1) 3)
2)

4) 5)
TASK: analysing a postmodern text
Applying the notes you have made on simulacra
and hyperreality, analyse how Humans S01 E01
reflects the postmodern context of the 21st
century.
What might be the ideologies being presented to
the audience through this media product?

“something has disappeared: the sovereign difference, between

one and the other, that constituted the charm of abstraction”
- Baudrillard
PLENARY: “basically, yeah…”
Sum up the theory of postmodernism
on one side of a post-it note.
Complete this sentence starter:
“basically, yeah, postmodernism is…”