Study task 3: Planning and Structuring an Essay

Which Academic Sources will you reference?

Collins, Jim (1989) ‘Uncommon Cultures: Popular Culture and Postmodernism’, Routledge, Abingdon-on-Thames 

Connor, Steven. (1997) ‘Postmodernist Culture: An Introduction to Theories of the Contemporary: Second Edition’, Oxford, Blackwell Publishers Inc

Jameson, Fredric (1991) ‘Postmodernism or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism’ , Durham, NC, Duke University Press

Kaplan, E. Ann. (1987) ‘Rocking Around The Clock: Music Television, Postmodernism and Consumer Culture’ London and New York, Methuen

Wyver, John. (1986) ‘Television and Postmodernism’. London, Institute for Contemporary Arts: London p.52-4

What Animation will you analyse?

The Simpsons: Popularised postmodernity on mainstream animated television.

South Park: Embodies a postmodern attitude towards intertextuality.

Adult Swim: (Space Ghost: Coast to Coast/ Sealab 2021): Characterised by multiplicity of styles/ repurposing of animation cells.

Waltz with Bashir: Example of dissent in a Postmodern world.

Essay Map:

The basic thesis of my essay is that aesthetically, contemporary animation bears many of the trappings of works produced in the postmodern era and are thus inherently postmodern. In order to explain this in my essay first I will have to explain the history of Postmodernity in relation to arts and entertainment, pinpointing the moment in which it penetrated the mainstream of the popular culture, influencing works that came after this. 

One of the key animations in explaining all of this is The Simpsons, a quintessential case study in the postmodern era, as it paved the way and influenced many animations in it's wake that came to define the era. From here I will discuss the television network Adult Swim where I will be comparing it to MTV in the 1980s, drawing upon E Ann Kaplan's theories of 'the postmodern mode of TV'.

The conclusion I am hoping to reach is that Postmodernity has been absorbed by the mainstream as an aesthetic, commodified and homogenised to the point it doesn't have the transgressive potential it used to have in its inception, a point from Fredric Jameson's essay.