John Storey - 'Cultural Theory and Popular Culture - Postmodernism'

Storey, John (2007) Cultural Theory and Popular Culture. London: Pearson, pp181-211

What Storey was trying to achieve in this article was to introduce the complex theory of ‘postmodernism’ to cultural studies students. He introduces the passage by stating that the term ‘post-modern’ can now be described to explain a vast majority of different things ranging from furniture to fashion to technology. However, in this lengthy article he will be only focusing on the term postmodern as it relates to popular culture.

History of postmodernism

The history of postmodernism as we know it today starts in the 1960’s as an attack on modernism. Cultural texts considered ‘shocking’ had become ‘canonized’ and apart of every-day culture. Works from Picasso and Brecht were no longer considered radical but as classic. Postmodernism as a theory argues that due to shifting culture the distinctions between high culture and low culture is less meaningful.

Pop art and the works of Andy Warhol and Lawrence Alloway became very popular around this time and both articles refused to acknowledge a distinction between the classes. Pop music also started to be taken seriously for example Bob Dylan and The Beatles.

Storey outlines three key postmodern theorists in this article; I am now going to outline some of their basic principles and ideas.

Jean François Lyotard

• Lyotard wrote ‘The Postmodern Condition’ (1984) and it is argued that he is the first theorist to introduce the term ‘postmodern’ in academic study.
  
• He was interested in the collapse and rejection of metanarratives and their frameworks. E.g. Marxism, Christianity etc.
  
• He believed that there is no absolute or universal truth.
  
• He believed that science was the only way towards absolute truth and freedom; however, since WW2 people are less interested in truth, and more concerned with a means to an end. For example instead of asking “is it true?” people began asking “what use is it?”
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• He believed that postmodernism would be the start of a new wave of modernism.
  
  

Jean Baudrillard

• Baudrillard was interested in the shift in western society. Instead of being based on the production of products, western society now bases itself on the production of information.
  
• He uses the term ‘simulacrum’ a lot during his writing. This means an “identical copy without an original.”
  
• There is little relevance to the distinction between the original and the copy. E.g. Mass production of music and films.
  
• ‘Hyperrealism’ is another term Baudrillard coins. This means that there is no divide between the real and simulated. E.g. Soap Opera characters receive letters from fans, New York offer a ‘Sex and the City’ bus tour. These are both examples of “the dissolution of TV into real life.”
  
  

Fredric Jameson

• Jameson is an American Marxist. He believes that postmodernism focuses on the cultural dominance of capitalism.
  
• He outlines capitalism in three stages: Market, Monopoly, late or multinational capitalism.
  
• He uses the term ‘pastiche’ to describe media texts as a ‘blank parody’ or ‘empty copy’.
  
• He argues that there is nothing original in today’s culture and that we are living in a “culture of quotations” that was born from previous cultures.
  
• Due to this we receive recycled media texts which thusly create a loss of history.