Postmodernism

“Pulp Fiction is a perfect example of a postmodern text."

Perhaps the most renowned postmodern director is Quentin Tarantino, who is
responsible for Pulp Fiction. The film is known for its, eclectic dialogue, ironic mix
of humour and violence and its nonlinear storyline. By using these conventions
Tarantino is able to interest people outside of the “target audience”, if you were
to describe the genre of the film you would say that it was American Crime. But
by introducing the Post Modern conventions it attracts new audiences.
In keeping with writer-director Quentin Tarantino's trademark of nonlinear
storytelling, the narrative is presented out of sequence. Pulp Fiction is structured
around three distinct but interrelated storylines which removes any reality from
the film making it look fake and unrealistic.
The film portrays many different stereotypes and representations often linking
characters back to other films, building on an
already formed relationship with a character, for
example Mia's haircut is very similar to Louise
Brooks’ in Pandora's Box. Louise stars as Lulu in the
film who is a young and impulsive actress whose
sexuality and inhibited nature brings out everyone
she meets, so by brining these characteristics into the character of Mia the
audience are made to feel like they have some knowledge and some
assumptions on how Mia will act. By doing this Tarantino is creating a mutual
level of understanding with the different audiences, this is very important for
Tarantino because it allows the audience to relate to him, building a trust and
wanting to see more. Another example of Tarantino doing this is the scene when
Jules quoting from the Bible, something that Tarantino likes to do a lot in his
films, through quoting the bible I feel that he is creating a “safety blanket” many
people find that religion is something they can either relate to or have some
opinion on. Christianity has been the most well known religion in society for
thousands of years so by Tarantino using the bible many people are able to pick
up on this reference.
Dominic Strinati one said this; “Postmodernism tries to come to terms with
and understand a media-saturated society. The mass media, for example,
were once thought of as holding up a mirror to, and thereby reflecting, a
 wider social reality. Now that reality is only definable in terms of surface
reflection of the mirror.”
I think this is apparent in Pulp Fiction, because when watching it we know that
the film is completely unrealistic because we are looking in this “mirror” but
during the film we begin to lose the gap between the reality and the fiction. As
an audience we begin to see the situations, such as when Mia’s chest wall has to
get pierced with the adrenalin needle, we know this could never happen so it
makes it a hyper-reality which then makes the situation amusing.
There are many parts of the film when Tarantino wants us to know that pulp
fiction is not a reality, for example when Vincent blows off the mans head in the
car, in another film this
would
be regarded as very
serious, but Tarantino
manages to put a
comedy spin on it by
introducing post
modernism. Tarantino's style taught that if done
right you could draw any emotion you wanted to out
of the audience at any moment during the film. This
is why we find all these situations amusing.

I think that Baudrillard summed up Pulp Fiction and postmodernism perfectly

when he sad this in 1993;

Disneyland is there to conceal the fact that it is the 'real country, all of
'real' America, which is Disneyland (just as prisons are there to conceal
the fact it is the social in its entirety, in all its banal omnipresence, which
is carceal). Disneyland is presented as imaginary, in order to make us
believe that the rest is 'real', when in fact all of Los Angeles and the
America surrounding it are no longer real, but of the order of the hyper-
real and of simulation. It is no longer a question of questioning a false
representation of reality (ideology), but of concealing the fact that the real
is no longer real, and thus of saving the reality principle.

In this quote he is saying that Disneyland is hiding the fact the rest of America is
no longer real by being so superficial and imaginary. I think this is apparent in
Pulp Fiction, the very “fake” parts in the film such as when Mia takes the
overdose hides the fact the rest of film is not real.

I think by saying that Pulp Fiction is a perfect example of Postmodernism is true

because it introduces many different elements to produce a “new reality”.