A POSTMODERN LOOK AT FIVE OF HUZIR SULAIMAN'S PLAYS MOHD AZRIL BIN ADNAN This project is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for a Bachelor of Education TESL with Honors (Teaching English as a Second Language) Faculty of Cognitive UNIVERSITI Sciences and Human Development MALAYSIA 2009 SARAWAK ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I wish to express my gratitude to my supervisor Mr. Ahmed Shamsul Bahri Bin Mohamed Tuah who has provided both emotional and intellectual support during the completion of this final year project. My appreciation to all my lecturers and course mates who have given ine strong support and have encouraged me in one way or another throughout this study. Last but not least, I thank my beloved parents, Adrian bin Baharuddin and Juhanna Binti Buyong and all my family members for their support and understanding in completing this study. iii TABLE OF CONTENT Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENT ABSTRACT ABSTRAK CHAPTER 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 vi vii ONE: INTRODUCTION Chapter overview Background of the study Statement of the problem Purpose of the study Significance of the study Operational definitions and terms 1.5.1 Simulacra 1.5.2 Simulations 1.5.3 Scenes of plays 1.5.4 Hyperreality 1.5.5 Pastiche 1.5.6 Streams of consciousness 1.5.7 Fragmentations 1.5.8 Rejection of meta-narratives 1.5.9 Experimentation Scope of the study Chapter review CHAPTER 2.0 2.10 III iv TWO: REVIEW 4 7 9 10 10 10 10 11 11 11 11 12 12 12 13 OF LITERATURE Preview Postmodern theory 2.1.1 Elements of postmodern texts. 2.2.0 2.1.2 Postmodern philosophical thought inspiration and ideas Representations in postmodern plays 2.2.1 Baudrillard's simulacra and simulations 2.2.2 Perfonnativity of representations 2.3.0 2.4 Huzir Sulaiman and his works Summary 14 14 17 as a source of 20 24 27 30 34 36 iv CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY RESEARCH 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Preview Research Design Text selected for analysis Instrument for Data Collection: Procedure for data collection 3.5 3.6 3.7 Data analysis Limitations of the study Chapter review CHAPTER DESIGN AND Theoretical Framework 50 50 50 66 72 4.1.2 The Smell of Language 4.1.3 Hip-Hopera 4.1.4 Notes on Life and Love and Painting 4.1.5 Whatever that is 4.2 Discussion 4.3 Summary CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS IMPLICATIONS 80 87 92 97 AND 100 100 104 104 105 Overview Summary Implications of the findings Recommendations for further research Conclusion REFERENCES APPENDICES A. Atomic Jaya B. C. D. E. 38 38 40 41 43 44 48 49 FOUR: FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 4.0 Preview 4.1 Text Analysis 4.1.1 Atomic Jaya 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 38 The Smell of Language Hip Hopera Notes on Love Life and Painting Whatever That is V ABSTRACT A POSTMODERN LOOK AT FIVE OF IIUZIR SULAIMAN'S PLAYS Mohd Azril Bin Adnan The study was designed to examine five of Huzir Sulaiman's plays from the perspective of the postmodern theory by looking at the issues of reality and The is first, found in his to examine objectives works. of reality representations framework based into Sulaiman's fit lluzir the postmodern on selected plays whether fragmentation, Postmodernism experimentation, rejection of namely elements of is The to consciousness. second objective meta-narratives, pastiche and streams of five in Baudrillard's from to the plays comparison analyze specific characteristics four stages of simulacra and simulations. Data was collected by selecting 1-luzir Sulairnan's plays by using two criteria, first was that the plays chosen have elements of postmodernism. characteristics of a postmodern literature, specifically Second, the plays deal with postmodern issues, such as loss of reality, hyperreality in be Baudrillard's four stages of categorized and representations which can based The then on the were read analyzed and plays simulacra and simulations. mentioned categories by using data analysis with the use of the postmodern theory as The findings showed that his plays can be termed as postmodern the framework. products as all five plays contains at least two of the postmodern elements and one of Baudrillard's stages of simulacra and simulations. The results also showed that Sulaiman's plays reflected the issues of the postmodern society such as issues of determining authenticity of reality and representations of'reality in the society. vi ABSTRAK PANDANGAN POSTMODEN DALAM LIMA TEA TER HUZIR SULAIMAN Mohd Azril Bin Adnan ini telah di reka untuk mengkaji lima pementasan Huzir Sulaiman daripada pandangan teori postmoden dengan ntelihat isu-i. cu realiti dan representasi realiti di kajian ini adulah pcrtanra, untuk juntpai dalam hasil karyunya. Ohjektirohjektif karyunya bersesllaian dengan rungka postmoden herdacurkan mengkaji sama ada fragnlentasi, terutanlanya elenten-elemen postmoden, e_xperintentusi, penolakcrn Ohjektif kcdua udaluh unttlk meta-narrative, pastiche (Ian alunan pentikiran. teater dalum perhandingan nlenganalisasi ciri-ciri tertentu di dalam kelinta-lima Data telah dikumpul dengan empat peringkat simulakra dun sinnllasi Baudrillard. karya teater Huzir Suliantan mengikut ciri-ciri memilih yang tcluh ditetapkun. dipilih Pertama, karya teater yang telah menlpirnyai ciri-cir-i postmoc/en, tertttamanya elemen-elenten postmoden. Kedua, teater yang dipilih hertenur dengan isu-isu realiti, hyperreulity dan representasi realiti yang holeh dikategorikun dalant dan Baudrillard. Teuter-teater peringkat simulakra simulasi tersehut empat kenutdian dibaca dan dianalisa herdasarkan kategori-kategori yang telah disehut menggunakan kaedah data analisis dengan teori postmoden sehugai rangka ker_ju utama. Penemuan kajian lekrh menunjukkan buhawa teater-teaten celiacc holeh di hasil postmoden atas dasar karya-karya beliall nterangktuni iktirafsebagai sekurangkurangnya dua elenten postmoden dan sattl peringkat sinlulukru dan sinrulasi. Ha.cil kajian juga teater Sulaiman isu-isu ntenunjukkan mencernrinkan na. cyarakat di niana realitl dan represertta. cl reulltl sukar llntnk dltentukan akan postmoden, kesahihannya. Kajian vii CHAPTF, IZ I INTRODUCTION 1.0 Chapter Overview This chapter aims to provide an overview discussing the relationship between society and postmodernism. to the problem statement which will literature. This will on the background further It will then move on discuss how this relationship lead to the aim of' the study and the objectives purpose of the study, significance, of the study definition operational is tied to of the study. The of' terms and finally the scope ofthe study will provide further details concerned with this study. 1.1 Background of the Study A society in any part of the world is a complex structure, prone to changes and evolution through the progression of time. One way a society would be prone to change and evolution of technologies, modernity page evident formulated Enlightenment morality is by change of thought, consisted by a suggestion in values and even by the advancements from the eighteenth in their efforts Habermas (I031), "[T]he to develop and law, and autonomous art according llabermas further elaborated. by century "the twentieth The differentiation automony of the segments treated by the specialist of science, morality 1 philosophers objective century of the science, universal to their inner logic". optimism. hermeneutics of everyday communication". the project of In the same has shattered this and art has come to mean the and their separation from the 'F lie l, nliihtenment' thoughts during that time which which were brought in France, was the result of new and radical movement emphasized on certain thoughts and principals, forth by the improvement of printing technology possible. And as argued by Ilabermas, showed how the society thoughts, so does the society, as time progresses it and values has changed over time and culture sometimes these changes were influenced that made it by the introduction These changes in society can be explained of new technologies. by using theories, and one of those theories would be the postmodern theory. There are several prominent Deridda and Lyotard, theorists who worked on postmodernism but this study theorist, Jean Baudrillard. Ills work developed an essential postmodern emphasizes especially from the mid postmodernism the concept is that the distinction what is simulated collapses: everything depths, this is the hyperreal". 1970s and onward, According to Barry (87), between what is real and is a model or an image, all is surface without Thus postmodernism, suggests that in the postmodern postmodern Simulacra and simulations is a concept critical discourse of postmodernism. written as a part ofthe major form of social theory and in which in the year 1983 he worked on a paper titled Simulations. "within on another such as society simulations based on Baudrillard's structure and control work, social affairs where models and codes precede reality and are reproduced unceasingly in a society where the contrast between the real and the unreal. This illustrates a general description known as the 'post-industrial' on what a postmodern society is, it is also society (Jameson, extracted from Docherty, p. 63). It is where the society is a result of technological fast communications. media, electronic development, and along with it, inflicting issues that can best describe the characterization such as hyperreality, simulations, confronted of postmodern in a world of the society with society. These issues the loss of reality and representations are dominant in a postmodern society. 2 Representation simulations. is the most The word 'representation' to demonstrate of something upon how meaning reflection critical in t3audriIlard's word simulacra and is the reference to signs that depicts or attempt Signs as defined another. is constituted by Macey by the relationship "is (350), between a what is signified and what signifies it are probably as old as human thinking about language, and the notion of sign can be traced hack to Classical Antiquity". that the representation of the signs is not a direct model and of course it is not the but it is a system, method original, What this means is or ways in an attempt to depict or copy the condition of that original or the imaginary. Representation can take many forms, such as paintings, pictures, sculptures or scenes in a play. Historically, image-making; original Plato, a Greek philosopher the first is a faithful reproduction, and second is an intentional distortion spoke of two attempted kinds of' to copy precisely to make the copy appear the more correctly (A. Bennet & N. Royle, p. 235). The concept of representation can also he traced to Saussure, who was a structuralism of the sign. the signifier linguistic and the signified. where he wrote on the systems theorist, In essence, Saussure's implication to and the media is that the language structures the world since language is a system of signs that mediates Saussure's theory. the signifier between the human and external is the sound and the signified extracted from Newton, p. 16). It would be illogical have a signifier mind without the signified reality. In is the thought (Saussure, to have one without the other; to or to have a signified without the signifier. The concept is that an object is related to its own specific sign. When there is an absence to the sign, the object would not exist. Meaning that. ultimately a person's knowledge of the existence of an object is governed by the vocabulary knowledge possessed on object. An object must have a name, without a name the object would that specific not exist and vice versa. And in postmodernism, have altered the signified (the thought remain unchanged, but as the signified the representation of the sign may or concept of the sign). The signifier has been compromised 3 may by the representations, it may lead to society in having a different perception, or views on what the sign is supposed to be. These concepts are similar to Jean Baudrillard's work in Simulacra but it has been expanded into the postmodern society. simulations and The postmodern society is where the media, advertizing and a lot more are eroding the lines between the truth and imaginary and to an extent the imaginary becomes the reality. The expansion covers that area, where the truth and the imaginary are mixed or contused. to Wain (367), "The postmodernist According representation, syntagmatically critics process an image, which is the along a chain of meaning which continually Thus, signs in which its origin never concluding on an ultimate truth". recede, was not part of reality and never existed before, but since it has been given a name (signifier) in turn becomes a reality (signified). This emphasized the system of' signs as not being exclusive only to reality but expands to the limits ofthe And the same phenomenon sign to the un-existing. postmodern has fed to industrialization, society is facing development the to happen in a dilemma, and growth because the world's in terms of rapid globalization, It affects the world as a kind of challenges to the society compared to the past. In mass communication posing a different those challenges, it involves especially can be identified providing a of the Problem The contemporary whole, imaginary, literatures, for instance novels. short stories and plays. 1.2 Statement progress will and mechanization. a new territory of issues concerned with the society, the products of the society. As mentioned by Wain, "postmodern pastiche destablishes the genres lion which it borrows its composite parts. It disseminates texts so that no central or original point of reference can be located and scatters the fragments randomly to form 4 an eclectic work", (p. 361). An eclectic from many forms, specifically work refers to a work that shares concepts a work that does not belong to a single concept. The work may include references from others. for instance a writer may use the references of other writers to be included in his or her work. This in turns reflects a condition the postmodern society, the eclectic society. It is where the people's longer singular, but has evolved to incorporate identity of' is no the values and cultures of others, in identity. be fragmented their to themselves allowing According world is shilling to Inglehart (220), 'The into a new era where the beliefs and values of people, those of advanced industrial societies, has changed, in relation to the diminishing starvation or disease". likelihood of people in that society to die prematurely What this means is that with the advancement of of technological progress, societies are becoming less concerned with the basic needs, such as t'Ood or shelter, but exploring more comfortable ways in enriching new and alternative with the use of technologies. their lives, making Iile For instance, technologies are used to fill their time with activities such as video games, the television technological These wants for technological the growth entertainments. of the technological uncontrollable. development, argument, (78), "lt entertainments to a point To further explain this uncontrollable and other terms of growth, the growth progress. It seems to proceed of its own accord, with a force, an autonomous motoricity developments, that is progressing like a wildfire; progression is viewed and unstoppable as no longer something that is positive be found These happening the towards society. cases can effects countless cases of anorexic models in magazines, that is independent is viewed by postmodernism uncontrollable women afflicted by the disorder, a teenager in the United becomes lets look at Lyotard's is no longer possible to call development of us''. These technological is feeding States quitting as something by men, and this but negative in its throughout society, trying to look like school just to play video games (Ehlers, p. 1) and news broadcasts are debated over its authenticity. All developments that these cases are examples of the negative effects of technological 5 are reflecting the problems inflicting the postmodern society, where the truths and the issue in becoming the society's truths an of are representations down to issues concerned with reality, where Thus the problem is narrowed that separates the real and the imagined the distinction way o1' life. is no longer absolute and is is because This between line two the society the that the confused. separates where is a product of a postmodern people are bombarded era, where with signs and but has been that that created were made something are either real or representations Postmodernism components. society accepts them as part of reality. where the postmodern so real, to a point and attempts to explain them through accepts these phenomenon As the society and newer progresses postmodern society, the issue of identifying in making pertinent technology develops, its for a the real and the imaginary has become is happening When is there the all around world. of sense what have been is left longer truths truth are only which and what small absolute any no fragmented, then the need to find the distinction greater and finding the distinction between truth and fiction has become between the two can he termed as a difficult least truths the representation notions of or at any since process, of truth has been perverted since the early civilizations. In literature, medium to reflect signs are seldom what they seem to he. Plays have been used as a the issues in society exaggerated or undermined to make and many issues have been of those the play to be more effective towards the been have forth happens, issues brought by When the this the may plays recipients. its in truthfulness altered and mixed up with the imaginary ofthe issues longer the are no a point where figment of imagination. Iluzir Sulaiman's real but merely This is the problem plays. It is when writer(s) and may to conjured up the writer(s) in this case, and associated with plays, truths are no longer easily identified in the is in it. This taking out of the reason that the plays are mirror place representations This is it itself that may cause the of society. a product since society reflections of 6 further confusion or perhaps create an illusion that created realities that originated from the imaginary among the readers and to the society. The issues portrayed or presented in the plays are issues that can be identified happening to the society, narratives, be has There is truth. truth there always will which no absolute meaning as the postmodern theory suggest, there are no meta- been scattered or fragmented, lost in in the or many cases altered, changed even and process. Baudrillard these issues in his work. discerning tackled One author, known Born in the Malaysian capital, in in plays. for his plays characterized Huzir Sulaiman and considered a guideline between what is real and what is not, and for and tagging the difference this study, in the scenes depicted It provides as a postmodern to be one of the prominent Kuala Lumpur. playwrights product, is in Malaysia. educated at Princeton University and later started what now considered as an established company called The StraitsTimes Theater Company acclaimed based in Kuala Lumpur (Klappert, his with plays such as Lu_v Ilcri' success In the plays written by Ituzir attempt to represent the reality p. 1). Ile enjoyed C ray, A/oºuie Jaya and others. Sulaiman, some of the scenes portrayed or the imagined culture: ideas are fragmented hyperreality consciousness, of streams reality His elements of and scenes that exploits the and others. In his plays, the representations of in certain scenes can be argued on whether simulations may he an of the societal environments. plays has been considered as a postmodern product, and thus containing the post modernistic critical it is a part of the basic truth, or even a pure simulacrum. 1.3 Purpose of the Study The postmodern society has been bombarded with representations that have influenced the perception towards reality. The representations of images can be 7 all around, from the news, politics, identified study focuses in looking arts, and even in literary at plays written by I luzir Sulaiman through the postmodern 0l-this study are to: theory. Thus, the objectives I. Examine whether I luzir Sulaiman's plays fit into the postmodern on selected elements works. This Postmodernism of namely framework based fragmentation, hyperreality, pastiche and streams of consciousness. Analyze specific 2. characteristics four stages of Simulacra and simulations. comparison to Baudrillard's These objectivcs from the five plays by I luzir Sulaiman in of the study are the main guidelines when conducting this he in The the taking that may proven through the society place are affects study. in findings the plays as a postmodern product the the resulted where plays. analysis of and reflecting the postmodern culture and society. This study attempts to analyze the societal aspects of postmodernism the society is influenced analyze the possible components identify influenced and affected by the postmodern era. The researcher needs to relationship the plays connecting between the postmodern to the plays written of postmodernism whether and how written by the postmodern have may by I-lour Sulaiman. any indications theory, the It aims to that it has been culture or it is a product as a result of such culture. As this issue has become a big part of our daily lives, it induced questions in how the be to the the postmodern: product of society reflect plays may 1. Can the elements of postmodernism Fragmentations and rejection which are pastiche, streams of consciousness. of grand-narratives be identified in I Iuzir Sulaiman's days'? 2. Can the characteristics of lluzir Sulaiman's plays be classified in l3audrillard's lour stagesof Simulacra and Simulations'? 8 1.4 Significance of the Stud By using the postmodern the elements of postmodernism plays, it established this study obtained that took place in a Malaysian author's findings on the influences of postmodernism work. Through in the analysis, framework that were identified throughout the a relationship to the works, as a product of a postmodern society. Subsequently. this study also provided findings that shed some light on the Malaysian as in how postmodernism literature as a whole, literatures. Malaysian Where contemporary literature has evolved and adapted in Malaysian are now or dealing presenting with issues. The issues presented in the plays may be dealing with what the issues. facing and those issues may reflect postmodern is currently society Thus, the result of this study may be used by other researchers as a further in studying reference concept ofand of the postmodern the components simulacra and simulations framework, in Malaysian literature. and also, the By using the results he to this used also this may, use a reference researchers study as other analysis, of with other firms of narratives such as novels or short stories, providing on what are happening more insights in Malaysian literatures. This study may also be used by other professions such as teachers, students deepen lecturers to their understanding mean a as or be by It achieved analyzing may written play. and appreciation the plays and the representations of the it itself, in that the may provide an explanation society scenes with between truth and fiction, source of confusion in which the current society views to the distinction them as issues or a that may impact the cultures and norms of the society. 9 of' a locally 1.5 Operational Definitions and Terms 1.5.1 Simulacra: As defined by Baurillard (382) "1 S]ubstituting to deter every real process by its operational is, an operation programmatic. signs of the real for the real itself; that perfect descriptive all the signs of' the real machine which provides its circuits all vicissitudes. and short double, a metastable, Never again will the real have to he reproduced". 1.5.2 Simulations: to ßaudrilard (382-38 ý), "to dissimulate According is to feign not to have what one has. To simulate is to feign to have what one hasn't. One implies a presence, the other is But the more complicated, matter an absence. feign: "Someone Someone who (Littre). Thus, difference difference since to simulate is not simply who feigns an illness can simply simulates an illness feigning produces in himself or dissimulating is always clear. it go to bed and pretend leaves the between "true" and "lälse", he is ill. some of the symptoms" reality is only masked: whereas to principle simulation intact: the threatens the between "real" and "imaginary"". 1.5.3 Scenes of plays: As defined by J.Peck and M. Coyle (88), ''Ja] play is divided into acts and scenes. One of the most productive ways of discussing a play is to focus on individual for any scene will tell us a lot about the plays as a whole. Individual scenes, scenes will lie is how dramatist dealing the the or and reveal problems with also reveal specific she makes his or her themes come to life". 10 1.5.4 Hyperreality: to BaLidrillard According synthesis of combinatory inability to distinguish (381-382) is the product ''a hyperreal models in a hyperspace of an irradiating without atmosphere. "I-hus it is the betvv een ghat is real and what is not, an enhancement of reality". 1.5.5 Pastiche: to Callincos (22), "[p]astiche According is the neutral practice of mimicry, any of parody's ulterior motives, amputated of the satiric impulse, devoid and of any conviction that alongside the abnormal some healthy linguistic borrowed, without of'lauIIhter tongue you have momentarily normally still exist". 1.5.6 Streams of consciousness: to Lombardi According carrying "The plot line may weave in and out of time and place, the reader through the life span of a character or further along a timeline to incorporate the lives (and thoughts) of characters from other time periods. "(p. I ). 1.5.7 Fragmentations: According to A. Bennet and N. Royle (233 -- 233), "fragmentation does no depend on the possibility way of thinking Dissemination about of an original postmodern `unity' fragmentation in postmodernism which has been lost. Another is in term of dissemination. involves a sense of scattering (as in a scattering of seeds or `semes'), a scattering of origins and ends, of identity, centre and presence". 11 1.5.8 Rejection of meta-narratives According to A. Bennet and N. Royle (234), "Grand Marxism, the E nlighhnent narratives present local explanations claim to explain everything. narratives such as Christianity. a framework attempt to provide of individual liar everything. Little but do not events or phenomena Little narratives are fragmentary, non-totalizing and non- teological. 1.5.9 Experimentation According to Huyssen postmodernist experiments is in visual perspective, dogma logic, the temporal which all o1' mimetic and attacked structure narrative reterentiality. '' (p. 170). 1.6 Scope of the Study This study focused using the components study used Baudrillard's in analyzing live plays written that makes up the postmodern Simulacra and simulations, plays of the order of reality by I luzir Sulaiman by framework. theoretical as the guidelines This in analyzing the and how it reflects the culture of a postmodern society. The five plays are: a) Atomic Jaya b) The smell of language c) I-lip-Hopera d) Notes on Life and Love and Painting e) Whatever that is This stud) is focused on the elements of the postmodern are pastiche, fragmentations, rejection of met-narratives, 12 framework, which streams of' consciousness and hyperreality. This study also emphasized which is Baudrillard's four stages of'Simulacra on a component and Simulations. of postmodernism The four stages are: I. The sign represents the basic reality 2. The sign distorts or perverts a basic reality 3. It masks the absence of reality 4. It hears no relation to any reality whatever: it is its own pure simulacrum. 1.7 Chapter Review This chapter discussed the theory as a medium to explain happening to a society from a broad perspective to a more specific contemporary society is facing. It explained study on the influence following chapter, on the society of postmodernism the researcher will the significance review postmodernism and literary works. 13 the studies the changes issue of which the and relevance of this and literature. done In the in relation to CHAPTER TWO OF LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Preview This chapter reviews some of. the studies done in relation with the use ofthe postmodern works. The aspects reviewed in this study will theory and l3audrillard's show the workings made findings of' the postmodern theory and how scholars of this theory in which can he used to explain the representations plays and especially in regards to I luzir tiulaiman's 2.10 Postmodern According modern invokes consolation to Lyotard (379), wvorks. the unpresentable "The postmodern in presentation would he that which itself, this adaptability means Postmodernism is that and formlessness. describe or explain the condition views postmodernism Unlike refuses the a common as repressive, that there is something stresses on to as a whole. stating that every individual Postmodern issues have fragmented the society. with concerned unique and 14 fluidity, other theories that attempt of 'a given population this in the and inquires into a new presentations - not to take pleasure in them. but to better produce the Iceling What that which refuses the consensus of taste permitting impossible, for the nostalgia of experience individuality, found in modern Theory of correct terms. unpresentable". has is refuses the 'consolation of correct correct ethics and so on. Postmodernism morality, forms'. where there is a notion of a correct its rejection of such grand-narratives. through as postmodernism a stand where there are no by providing he a contradiction a definition to the to state or provide so definite to a theory that rejects the idea in the first place. something Another scholar. Alex Callincos did not attempt to give a definition of three distinct the convergence represented describe the identification of postmodernism and sculptures of paintings architecture, from the movement Modernism Romanticism. incorporates a particular to a wider I lerc Calincos are replaced focused range, encompassing of arts is this movement For instance, style to another. elements, involved first through the movement of arts, not only In postmodernism, and Surrealism the postmodern couple of decades". but covers to drama. music, literature trends. The cultural changes in the arts over the previous in terms to theory, in how the theory may be explained (2), "postmodernism but lie gave a description certain Thus, truths - only mini-narratives. refuses the concept of ahsolution. in itself. would he a paradox. It would theory rejects this strict notion of unity Maintaining absolute truths and what remains are fragmented structure, such as styles by a newer style which on the past and on mass culture (pastiche) (2). Callincos in philosophy current was thought to he giving by contemporary explored (2), the second trend explained artists". Callincos "secondly, conceptual expression workings it relates to the third poststructuralist odds with Callincos issues. specifically cultural concept (2-3). poststructuralism's explained that during trend, to the themes contributed is on the understanding "art and philosophy seemed to reflect changes in the social of the (somewhat at world. '' the 1970's. a few theorists produced 15 to the With this he on the issues of reality. which anti-realism) a certain argued that a group of French theorists who came in 1970's who shared the label of poststructuralism in postmodern however, Here. works that contributed theory. to the development The implication continuation, of postmodernism, is that, even though rejection thus giving a better insight on the has been argued as a postmodernism of modernism, but it shares some of its roots or an evolution concept. This means that postmodernism with the poststructuralist can be argued for its development, as it was not seen to have developed on its own. It was an evolution of a theory and at the same time, sharing similarities with other philosophical concepts which have existed before it. This opens the gate to understanding a better understanding on what a postmodern postmodern text, building, drawing upon different performance, postmodernism text is. As mentioned and so on, is usually by Lane (85), "A a mixture of styles, and features to produce a hybrid liwm". historical movements The postmodern text, argued by lane is a 'hybrid', of different leatures a combination styles or difTerent concepts of previous works that constitutes the text from different This 'hybrid' as postmodern. "postmodern and subsequently giving also means an eclectic work, as mentioned by Wain, pastiche destablishes the genres from which parts. It disseminates texts so that no central located and scatters the fragments randomly or original it borrows its composite be reference can point of to lorm an eclectic work", (p. 361). An eclectic work refers to a work that shares concepts from many forºns, specifically a work that does not belong to a single concept. The work may include references from others, for instance a writer may use the references of other writers to be included in his or her work. As suggested by Khalidi elsewhere were also incorporated as a normal phenomenon with other theories structuralism. that (9), " elements from other theories first elaborated into the postmodern realm". Thus it is considered when certain features in a postmodern have existed before text can be related it, such as modernism These features can best he termed as elements and post- that incorporate the theory, and in which these elements can also be traced to these other theories. What is 16 important in this study is not so much as in what the theories have in similarities with one another, rather. the emphasis is on how the theories views the elements that they have similarities with. Postmodernism are incorporated by it. One instance would be, unlike modernism, that postmodernism have a distinct perception in the elements that the difference is no longer laments over these elements that they have in common, but rejoiced it, specifically. viewing these elements as a positive phenomenon and that, even though the accepts them to be a part of the society. 2.1.1 Elements of Postmodern Texts. As for the elements, it is important postmodern term is hard to be conclusively the elements The themselves. theory functions. defined, but it can still he described elements is and the mechanism postmodernism to be reminded give a better that contributes understanding to the explanation of by what in how the I Jere, the researcher has listed the major elements ofthe postmodern theory: " Hyperreality: According to ßaudrillard synthesis of combinatory the inability to distinguish "a hyperreal is the product of an irradiating (38I-382) models in a hyperspace without atmosphere. 'T'hus it is between what is real and what is not, an enhancement of reality". " Simulacra: As defined by Baurillard that is, an operation metastable, (i82) "ISJubstituting to deter every programmatic, perfect signs of the real and short circuits signs of the real for the real itself; real process by its operational descriptive machine all its vicissitudes. have to he reproduced". 17 which double, provides Never again will a all the the real " Simulations: to Baudrilard According one has. To simulate is to feign to feign: he is ill. "Someone Someone who symptoms" (Zittre). intact: difference the threatens who is more complicated, feigns an illness an illness not to have what is always clear, between "true" and is not go to bed and pretend in himself produces it is only a presence, since to simulate can simply or dissimulating feigning difference the is to feign to have what one hasn't. One implies simulates Thus. dissimulate "to an absence. But the matter the other simply (382-383), some leaves the reality masked, whereas between "false", of' the principle simulation "real" and "imaginary"" " Rejection of meta(grand)-narratives: According to A. I3ennet Marxism, Christianity, N. Royle the l".nlightment Little narratives everything. phenomena but do not fragmentary, non-totalizing writing and (234). attempt "Grand to provide present local explanations claim to explain to reject the notion of' absolute Little as fir events or narratives are In literary texts it is the style of of the authors to rejects the concept of absolution. the author such a framework of individual everything. and non-teological". narratives truths It is as an attempt by and replaces it with the acceptance of mini-narratives. " Pastiche: According to a quote from Jameson (extracted from Felluga, p. I), "Pastiche like parody, the imitation ofa linguistic mimicry, of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic is, style, the wearing mask, speech in a dead language. But it is a neutral practice ofsuch without any of parody's ulterior impulse, devoid of laughter". 18 motives, amputated of the satiric
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