Postmodernism week 7 Lecture Notes

Chasing Tales: The Ouroboros

•  'Meta Fiction'
• Ouroboros - a circular symbol of a snkae or dragon - stands for infinity
• Meta - about it's own catagory e.g. Meta story, meta joke, meta advertising
• Meta Fiction - Scream triology horror film about horror films (referencing)
• Scream 3 references trilogies and Scream 4 about it's own franchaise - snake devouring tail
• Mulholland Drive - Meta Fiction references Film Noir
• Moulin Rogue - Meta Fiction commented on it's own story and writers
• Funny Games - attempt to deconstruct horror and questions own format, formula
• Adaptation - writes about struggle of writing 'The Orchid Thief'
• "I don't want to make a hollywood adaptation" quote in film but turns out to unpick itself
• meta appears in literature, 'The French Litutenant's Woman'
• Realism - attempt to depict the world as it really is
• Question of the 'real' = what is familiar
• Constructed by us - deconstruction breaks up what we rely on - interrogates it
• becoming self concious = a signal that one was up to date
• self conciousness built on world's sensitivity
• 'the forth wall' - A common fictional concept, characters unaware they are in a story

• exploration of Fourth wall is a trait of Post Modernism
• Fourth Wall being broken:
• Funny Games - character looks at screen breaks illusion by addressing audience
• JCVD - Vandam - addresses audience, lifted out of narrative and confessing experiences of his real life/ reality
• genre savvy - character doesn't know thier in the story but know of stories and genres e.g Scream 3 - character in second film leaves message of surviving in a trilogy
• Addressing Mise En Abyme - world reflecting itself
• term to describe intertexual language  ' Frame within a Frame
• The Droste Effect - e.g Unmagumma Pink Floyd, poster on wall reflects photo and so on
• 'Things are Queer' - snakes round back to first image never resolved
• Last Action Hero - Deconstruction of the 'Action Film' laid with jokes of what audience expects
• Scream 2 - talks about sequels, murder starts again immitation of the 1st
• Terms of Meta Fiction still being contested - self reflexive fiction
• Narcissistic Fiction - unengaged with discussions Ocean's 12 as example - characters playing themselves