Module B - Elective 2: Postmodernism (Essay) (1 Viewer)

[McLake]

Question 7:

[TEXT]

Use this text as the starting point for an essay in which you evaluate the ways that postmodern texts challenge the nature of representation.

In your essay, draw on your knowledge and understanding of TWO prescribed texts as weel as other texts of your own choosing.

 

[gemita]

I thought this was a pretty awesome essay...the picture threw me a bit at first but I thought the essay itself was great...a disguised question pretty much open to anything, I thought it was nice and broad but specific enough not to be too overwhelming. How much did eveyone write? I did 11 pages.

 

[glycerine]

I wrote 17 pages for this one. I found the picture was fairly easy to link back to the question about challenging the nature of representation; I talked abt how post-modernism has resulted in a shift in the boundaries between surface meaning and deeper meaning and how they intertwin and stuff. I dunno, with the exception of Possession I'm fairly happy with what I wrote for this.

 

[JoyDivision]

I did 16 pages

My thesis was something like 'Postmodernism is not a representation of patriarchial values, but a RE-presentation where what was thought to be concrete can become abstract, and that which was thought to be bent can be straight'

I thought it was a good question, had already been tipped off to look for a picture but really I didnt think It was needed, with a couple more words in the question like 'relection' or like 'transformation' we couldve been good too.

 

[cheeky_panda]

I was very pleased witht he essay question - 17 pages, creative was a bit errrkk tho!

 

[welshi]

i cut into my essay time with my creative a bit too much and wrote 10 pages. i just talked about manipulating society's distorted reflection of itself in art, i was a bit thrown by the visual stimulus element for an essay. i kept having to remind myself to link it back to the question as i kept rambling off into my prepared stuff. and my second supp text was pretty token, did FLW, orlando, hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy as my main texts and then halfway through i noticed the "textS" plural and hurriedly chucked in a token reference to brecht. hope it counts

 

[KarmaKitten]

I loved it, was able to just shove in my essay, wrote 13 pages.

 

[skittlebrau]

I liked the question... didn't have a pre-prepared essay (for once), but I knew the texts. Did anyone else directly refer to the picture? 'Cos I briefly wrote what (I thought) the pic was trying to say, but then other people in my class said they didn't.

 

[welshi]

best essay qn ever. was i the only one who loved the picture? its good cos it givs u something to alk abt that is obviously not a prepared essay but is relevant to postmodernism.

for creative i talked abt how pomo is cultural mainstream now and how that represents a paradox with its supposedly subversive and skeptical aims. in a creative context of course (is some crappy narrator/character business)

re the pic...at first i was like "oh god of what the" cos i didn't see it properly..then i realised that the guy was bent and the reflection was normal. "ohhhhhhhhh." so blonde.

 

[gemita]

I didn't talk about the pic in detail because I thought it would sound too self conscious and it wasn't the main point of the question...I basically talked about the way pomo's attempts to redefine conventional representations of issues such as time, gender, language etc can be likened to a funhouse mirror, distorting the original representation and forcing viewers to question which version is the 'truthful' representation.

 

[JoyDivision]

Gemita, I like what youre saying. Its interesting to think what the truthful representation is, especially in postmodernism - what would you say it is? I think its hard to tell with postmodernism, because it essentially argues that when you look for truth, all you will uncover is more and more intertextuality.

 

[welshi]

Gemita, I like what youre saying. Its interesting to think what the truthful representation is, especially in postmodernism - what would you say it is? I think its hard to tell with postmodernism, because it essentially argues that when you look for truth, all you will uncover is more and more intertextuality.

nothing is original...the hall of mirrors just closes in with thousands upon countless thousands of ricocheting reflections until u run screaming from the building...

and that was just the exam

 

[gemita]

Gemita, I like what youre saying. Its interesting to think what the truthful representation is, especially in postmodernism - what would you say it is? I think its hard to tell with postmodernism, because it essentially argues that when you look for truth, all you will uncover is more and more intertextuality.

Well I kinda got sucked in to the whole pomo thing and as a result...I don't think there is any truth. Truth is relative. I just went through systematically and identified one or two conventions or givens in each of my texts which were challenged by pomo (eg gender and history in orlando, time and language in sexing the cherry, structure and purpose in flw...) and talked about how these representations of time as multi-dimensional, gender as superflouous etc challenged the original representation and made us question it. But I never said which representation I thought was 'the truth', because I think the importance is in the questioning, not the answering....I've been indoctrinated into pomo!!!

 

[mozzie]

well i wrote my essay whole 20 pages of it...but i dont think i did a good job so so so so tragic...my last hopes at salvedging a decent uai gone with the wind

 

[Thomas_wow]

i just wrote about how identity through identity is defined by gender and race, and how pomo tries to subvert/shutdown theories about gender and other things about identity... 12 pages, roughly counted words was about 2000

 

[dan2323]

The picture was "a starting point for the essay", and not the basis of it. Which was pretty good because it meant you could write anything, although i did use the word 'transmogrification' a few times hmm

 

[idontgetit]

After 2 years, do any of you actually have a clue about wtf postmodernism actually is?

Or should it just be called 'bullshitting'?

 

[gemita]

Yeah, I think it was the best, most valuable, and most interesting thing I learned in my entire high school life. I love it, I'm thinking maybe I'll do english at uni just so I can do pomo again.

 

[Thomas_wow]

i still have nfi about what pomo is, thats the good thing, it encompasses so many things, whatever you write is right... go the rhyme!~

 

[cwilson]

i thought it was ok.
i liked the creative bit but with the essay i didn't talk much about the picture (or perhaps, not even at all) but i like the whole challenging bit.

i wrote 12 pages for the essay and 11 for the story.

how can you write 20 pages for an essay?!?! i can't hardly even write that much in both pieces..let alone think that fast..
Is your writing huge? how many words a line??