Caveh Zahedi
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Tristram Shandy and the Death Knell of Post Modernism

Last night, I watched Tristram Shandy. I liked the film a lot. It's well-written (by Frank Cottrell Boyce), well-directed (by Michael Winterbottom), and brilliantly acted (by Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon). But watching it, I couldn't help feeling that it tolls the death knell of post-modernism. "Tristram Shandy," the novel by Laurence Sterne, was published in 1759 and was arguably a precursor of what would come to be called post-modernism - a style conscious of itself and of its history and in which form becomes content (the greatest example of which is arguably James Joyce's "Ulysses"). "Tristram Shandy," the film, released in 2006, announces the end of post-modernism as a radical movement that was once on the cutting edge of consciousness. Despite its excellence as a film, its post-modern strategies fail to surprise and are easily assimilated. We've all seen it before, and we all understand it only too well. The film, which would like to think of itself as cutting-edge, announces instead the final and complete exhaustion of post-modernism as an artistic strategy.

The question for artists today is: What's next? What speaks to the truth of today?

Because post-modernism clearly no longer does.


180px-LSterne.jpg

Laurence Sterne



Comments

I thought postmodernism was over with the first self-reflexive episode of Rosanne. I also thought Ulysses was considered high modernism.


Right on both accounts.

And I think that episode of "Rosanne" was definitely when postmodernism jumped the shark. "Rosanne", on the other hand, never jumped the shark. Classic show.


Fred,
You're right that most people consider Ulysses high modernism and Finnegans Wake post-modernism, but I would argue that Ulysses is already an instance of both modernism and post-modernism.


I'd argue that what you thought was the exhausting of post modernism was, in fact, just a not very good film. Your films have post modern qualities of being aware of their form and playing with its limitations (painting your head, joking about not being able to afford Paris), but you also have something to say. I like Winterbottom but he can't hit them all out of the park.


Chris,
You're right.


I've long thought that there was nowhere else to go beyond post-modernism, because its very nature is a snake swallowing its own tail. And this is why we're either doomed to dwell in it forever (with variations ranging from sobering to "ludicrous speed") or accept that the only way out is to back up out of that dead end (devolve to something more modernist in the current modern age) and try a new path. The problem is, you can't lose hyper-awareness once you've experienced it.


I believe it's possible to go beyond the post-modern, especially by utilizing convergence of all things (media-wise or philosophically)... and it's difficult by subverting the viewer is the best way to do it... surprise can happen, but it must involve a little manipulation paradoxically mixed in with true reality as experienced by the filmmakers (including cast/crew), while allowing that very same alchemy to become part of the storyline and/or cinematic structure of the film's experience... we are post-post-modern... we are lost in a world of convergence both sonic and visual... and the emotional truth is what every human needs and either looks for, or tries to forget about via drugs/obsessions/love/lust, etc.



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