1000 Word Theoretical Analysis

DC00385860

Assignment 1: Part 1 

Postmodernism, is directly linked to the social and historical events after World War ll and to the  technological advancements in the world. Firstly it rejects modernism and the Enlightenment’s theory on the subject and self. Internet technology has increased the speed of communication and created a global community. According To Jameson, he gives a ‘Marxist analysis on postmodernism and is realistically stating that the 'contemporary world reflects a new economy-post industrial capitalism.’ Jameson emphasizes that a global economy is governed by ‘multinational corporations beyond government control; which creates depthlessness, the image/simulacrum; and the weakening of Historicity.’ (Jameson 1991) Thus technological advancement has created the need for a new way of thinking; by drawing on these advancements; it rejects modernist tendencies or creates extreme forms. ‘Postmodernist thought is characterized by a principled skepticism about language, truth, causality, history and subjectivity …it rejects New critism, critical theory and Psychoanalysis.’ (Castle 2007:145) Yet according to  Currie  ‘Postmodernists maintain a stance of incredulity with respect to master narratives ,the unifying and totalizing discourses…Helgian and Marxian teleological narratives … embraces the unpredictable …binary functions have little or no relevance to Postmodern techniques…’ (Castle 2007:145)

What is evident is that the linguistics, and semiotic methods of discourses are still the same ,but language is being deconstructed and reanalyzed in terms of intertextuality .As according to Castle ,‘The postmodern is caught up in the presentation of the unpresentable,that which can be ignored, occluded or repressed.’(Castle 2007:145) This is directly linked to Globalization, which is directly linked to finance and technology and the worldwide fluidity of the transfer of information and shall look at Baudrillard and his theory on Simulations (1981) and of how mass media and globalization affect our perception of reality. To begin with Baudrillard is examining how technology has created multiple images, simulations of the real object. He is arguing that the simulation of reality has taken over the distinction of the real. It is through mass media that this simulation is made real and becomes a hyperreality within culture and society globally. ‘The hypereal is the abolition of the real not by violent distinction, but by its assumption elevation to the strength of the model.' (Malpas 2005:93) Thus  Baudrillard argues in his work on ‘The Ecstasy of Communication’(1988)That  a human has become so absorbed in information and communication that they become ‘schizo’, in terms of that they are being constantly subconsciously influenced by mass media and technology, that they are unaware of this influence. Therefore they accept this hyperrealist as the norm. The Precession of Simulacra is evidently referring to the way that a simulacrum has preceded the real. A prime example of this is his example of how Disneyland, ‘which exists in order to disguise the fact that it itself the ‘real’ America.’ (Castle 2007:200) Thus Disneyland has preceded the real object and shows the precession of simulacra. I shall look at Baudrillard and the hyper reality of films in my critical analysis later but secondly I shall look at Derrida .Baudrillard is primarily concerned with the visual concept of hyperreality while Derrida examines language and deconstruction and how ‘it constitutes meaning through a lay of differences, the slippage or ‘spacing’ of the signifier.’ (Castle2007:80)

In ‘Jacques Derrida -Essay "Structure, Sign and Play in the Discourse of the Human sciences"(1966) Derrida’s essay is questioning the idea of center, in order makes us examine the concept of centering as a balance in a structured environment. It is essentially asking the reader to deconstruct the text .This process is looking for a new dimension in particular at reading texts .Social and historical events in essence favour this concept as a new way of reading. To look beyond the text is inevitably asking us to embrace intertextuality and the metanarrative.Thus what this process does as according to Barry; it produces 'textual harassment' or 'oppositional reading'. in 'pursuance of its aims ,the deconstruction process will often fix on a detail of the text which looks incidental -the presence of a particular  metaphor ,for instance and then use it as the key to the whole text, so that everything is read through it....The deconstructionist looks for evidence of gaps and discontinuities of all kinds. '(Barry 2009:71) I shall investigate the three stages of deconstructive practice later in my analysis and it will be in direct reference to metafiction.

‘Metafiction novels tend to be constructed on the principle of a fundamental and sustained opposition: the construction of a fictional illusion and the laying bare of that illusion. In other words, the lowest common denominator of metafiction is simultaneously to create a fiction and to make a statement about the creation of that fiction. The two processes are held together in a formal tension which breaks down the distinction between 'creation' and 'criticism' and merges them into the concepts of 'interpretations 'and 'deconstruction.' (Waugh 1996:6)Therefore what this process is doing is making us look at postmodern narrative and how it reflects on itself as a fictional text. In Puig’s novel it will become evident that this process is making us examine the metadiscourse of what the underlying statement of the text is about; here Puig’s fight is political and sexual oppression. This is also directly linked to Judith Butlers work on ‘Gender as a Performance.’ The performance in the text is absorbed in the hypereality of the film clips in, The Kiss of a Spider Woman. In her paper Gender Trouble (1990:25) she is arguing that: 'There is no gender identity behind the expressions of gender; ... identity is performatively constituted by the very "expressions" that are said to be its results.' (Butler 1990:25) Thus she is arguing that gender is a performance which is essentially dictated by the rules of society and how we should perform as the male and female sex in a patriarchal hegemonic society. Butler argues that we all perform gender roles and therefore reinforce this identity and she is asking us challenge this identity .In Puig’s novel it shall be evident that this gender role is challenged by Molina and ultimate the conversion of Valentin’s hard edged male identity. I shall explore these theoretical concepts next in an analysis of Manuel Puig’s novel, Kiss Of The Spider Woman.