Importance of Postmodern Culture - Essay Example

Postmodern Culture Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Discussion 3 Conclusion 7 References 8 Introduction Culture has always been asign of differentiation that draws a clear mark of social differences between groups. Further, it provides for a foundation of exclusion and inclusion that helps in identifying different cultures. However, there has been an identifiable difference between the folk culture and contemporary mass culture. The differences are witnessed mainly for the impact on the lifestyle of the people owing to the change in culture. Identifiably in the recent era, there has been a commercialisation of culture. This new trend is observed to be having an impact on different practical life aspects. The recent commercialisation of culture is observed to be aligning the culture with the practical life. The postmodern era is a complex culture that inflicts social change and leads to political transformation. Postmodernism is identified as the mythical heads of the hydra, which has successfully changed the culture of a society (Horn, 2000). With this regard, the essay elaborates on postmodernism and its analysis, detailing the different effects the postmodern culture on the life of the people and society. Discussion Postmodern culture can be identified to be conjoint in nature owing to the lack of unity among the postmodern society. With the openness of the postmodern society, there has been a lot of subjectivity that has been inflicted among the people. Furthermore, postmodern society is majorly observed to be controlled by the mass media and powerful institutions. The reality of the world in this postmodern era is highly controlled by the different images and pictures of the mass media. In this respect, commercialisation is observed to be having a huge effect in the virtualisation of a society at large (Strinity, 2004). In the postmodern society, people are often viewed to be having a virtualised belief of the culture. The effect of commercialisation in the modern world positively triggered that people draw the inferences of their real life from the commercialisation and modern life. The postmodern era even evidence the use of comic stories as well as the different virtual imagery, which is replacing novels and books. The different novels and epics are being replicated through virtual images that are observed to be providing a virtual lifestyle to the real world. This post-modern era of culture is observed to be developing boundaries between imagery and real life. The postmodern culture has been internationally ambiguous and severely complex for people to understand the actual effect of culture (Grossberg, 2014; Foster, 1985). The virtualisation of the real world is influencing the life of the people at large. Mcrobbie (1994) provided an insight on the fact that the postmodern culture is one of the most intermingled and disintegrated cultures having a positive impact on the ‘real life’ of people. Similarly, in the movie Run Lola Run (1998), the different subjective elements used depict the fact that there is no universal truth for the postmodern people. Moreover, the different use of the universal phenomenon does not last in the minds of the postmodern people. It can be also noted that the post modernist view of life is quiet complex in nature and lacks the artistic statements. The film even depicted the fact that postmodern era does not believe in universal truth of life rather requires a justification for all that happens around. The virtualisation of the subjective elements was the unique selling protocol of the movie that led to huge acceptance of the movie among the masses (YouTube, 2014; Kosta, n.d.). Pastiche has been a postmodern concept that depicts the mimicry or homage to the originality of life. Depending on the fact that the postmodern era believes in originality and subjectivity like the concepts of death and other originality of life, the movie easily connected the people with the facts of life. Observably, Lola, the lead character of the movie was running against time to save the life of her boyfriend was well justified with the originality of death and its impact on life. Different screenplays and plots in the movie relate to the romantic fantasies that people have in their real life. This originalities were well justified with the original instances of life and gives a clear imagery of the facts of life (Kosta, n.d.). An important notion in the postmodern culture is identified about death of the originality reflecting the lack of ability to generate new and innovative ideas. From this notion, it can be observed in the present era of postmodernism that there has been no significant difference between the high and the elite cultures. Furthermore, the depiction of the original phenomena of death and love has successfully connected people in the postmodern era reflecting commercialisation of the real life (YouTube, 2014; Strinity, 2004). Further, the different approaches of the postmodern society are observed to be having an effect on believing in the fake than the real world aspects. The virtualisation of the different realities of life creates a long lasting effect on the minds of people in the modernised world (Jameson, 1982). The same could be justified with the use of the pragmatist notion of death and love with virtualisation of fight against time. It could be also noted that the film has developed a link with the modern world, as the film has tactically used the original concepts as well as the notion of the virtualised world. This belief in originality of the postmodern society is observed even to be breaking down the barriers between the real and fake events in life. Lola’s run to save her boyfriend is observed to be unending sequence of the movie. However, owing to the originality of the concepts of death and love has successfully provided a link that has been efficiently increasing the acceptability of the movie in the postmodern world (YouTube, 2014; Kosta, n.d.). In addition, the movie provided a rationale and efficient solution to the problem that was there in Lola’s life. This efficiency and rationale provided the movie with its originality and enhanced the acceptance of the same in the present post modernised beliefs of the people. The film was largely based on the notion of fighting against the superfluous time that was observed to be having a universal effect of the movie on the audience. Furthermore, it could be observed that the use of facts that was different from the notions of traditional societal development led to the popularity of the movie. This changed perspective of the director aligned the movie with the post modernise culture. With the use of the diverse art forms and genres, the movie has been reflecting the beliefs and the development of the mental set ups of the postmodern culture. With the use of the different facts and notions from the real life, the movie successfully reflected the approaches of the real world and develops a clear picture of the alignment between the virtual and real imagery of the postmodern culture. The literary scenes give the bold depiction of the popular culture that was prevalent in a postmodern society (YouTube, 2014; Kosta, n.d.). With the use of the different texts and pastiches, the film has successfully developed the bold and logical standpoints of the postmodern era and developed a clear imagery of the rationale and beliefs. In this context, the justification that was provided in the movie reflected the originality of the notion and enhanced the fact that could easily be related to Lola’s plight to save her boyfriend. The imagery facts that reflected the run against time by Lola could be easily addressed through the justification of the fact that Lola was fighting against death for her love. This different commercialised use of props in the movie reflected about the commercialisation of culture based on the post modernised era. In addition, the merger between the real and fake life events was identified to be prevalent in the postmodern culture. The merger between fake and real life events is observed to be well depicted through the use of different literature in the movie. The movie was completely based on a virtualised fact that had its roots in the real world. This notion of virtualisation of real life is the essence of the commercialised postmodern culture (YouTube, 2014; Kosta, n.d.). Conclusion The movie, ‘Run Lola Run’ depicts the postmodern culture where the hyper-real culture of the society is observed to be largely dependent on simulations that precede reality. Furthermore, the film even depict on the elements that time could be reverted and reality is flexible if things goes wrong. In order to link with the real life, the postmodern movie depicts the style and the setting of the movie over the substance. With the use of the techniques, literature as well as screenplay, the director keeps a logical link with the postmodern culture of the present age. The movie has developed a sheer link with postmodern culture through the use of different features of the postmodern society that include pastiches as well as cultural recycling. The role-playing games have also successfully depicted the belief of rationale development of postmodern culture. References Foster, H., 1985. Postmodern Culture. Pluto Press. Grossberg, L., 2014. We Gotta Get Out of This Place: Popular Conservatism and Postmodern Culture. Routledge Horn, P., 2000. Mass Culture, Popular Culture and Cultural Identity. Culture, Civilization and Human Society, Vol. 1, pp. 1-9. Jameson, F., 1982. Postmodernism and Consumer Society. Whitney Museum Lecture, pp. 1-12. Kosta, B., No Date. Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run and the Usual Suspects: The Avant-Garde, Popular Culture, and History. German Pop Culture. [Online] Available at: https://www.press.umich.edu/pdf/0472113844-ch11.pdf [Assessed 2 November 2014]. McRobbie, A., 1994. Postmodernism and Popular Culture. Routledge Strinity, D., 2004. An Introduction to the Theories of Popular Culture. Routledge YouTube, 2014. Run Lola Run. Full Movie. [Online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AbL2-c-wlw&hd=1 [Assessed 2 November 2014]. Read More