Postmodern Society

While society in postmodernism films may look in depression era, the reality has a lot less violence. Some movies tend to be blamed for some criminal acts that happen in the society because some of those movies have plenty of violent acts. However, this has never been taken seriously as the main reason for those criminal acts. Despite that, many movie makers ignore the issue. This is probably because in a postmodern world, the society composed of a wide variety of people.Many different Cultures, languages, nationality, ethnicities, and so on can often be found interacting in one place. Furthermore, all these factors often lead to an open-minded group of people. Which tend to be able to take the content displayed in the movies maturely.

Essay Structure

A rough idea of how my essay going to look like.

Introduction

-General description about modernism and postmodernism

-How they affect the film industry

-Particularly in superhero movies

Body

-Batman movies throughout both eras.
-Kick-Ass as a postmodern movie
-Genette's transtextuality theory

-Kick-Ass questions what is needed to be considered as a superhero.

-Kick-Ass and Batman similarity of having no real power.

-Derrida's deconstruction theory

  >Batman

  >Kick-Ass

-Joseph Campbell's hero's journey theory 

  >Batman

  >Kick-Ass

Conclusion

-Kick-ass deconstructivsm

-How it affect people's thoughts

Annotated Bibliography

Agger B. 1991. Critical Theory,Postsctructuralism, Postmodernism. [online] Available at: http://www.artsrn.ualberta.ca/courses/PoliticalScience/661B1/documents/BenAggerCriticalTheoryPoststructPostMod.pdf [Accessed: 7 Aug 2013].          Reading material which gave me further understanding of postmodernism and structuralism.

Beattie T. 2008. The dark (k)night of a postmodern world | openDemocracy. [online] Available at: http://www.opendemocracy.net/article/the-dark-k-night-of-a-postmodern-world [Accessed: 7 Aug 2013].

         Reading material about the movie The Dark Knight

I       Irvine M. 2004. Derrida-Deconstruction-Notes. [online] Available at: http://www9.georgetown.edu/faculty/irvinem/theory/Derrida Deconstruction-Notes.html [Accessed: 7 Aug 2013].

        Reading material which gave me further understanding about Derrida's theory

Lanir, L. 2013. What is Transtextuality? How Words and Texts Interact. [online] Available at: http://www.decodedscience.com/what-is-transtextuality-understanding-the-meaning-of-the-words-we-read/28891 [Accessed: 7 Aug 2013].

        Reading material which gives basic understanding about transtextuality.

Sweetman B. 1999. Postmodernism, Derrida and Différance: A Critique. [online] Available at: http://cte.rockhurst.edu/s/945/images/editor_documents/content/ARTICLES%20(PDF)Lyotard,%20Postmodernism%20and%20Religion%20(110kb)Fou/Sweetman-Derrida.pdf [Accessed: 7 Aug 2013].

          Reading material which gave me further understanding of postmodernism and Derrida's theory

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Yahoo! Contributor Network. 2010. Kick-Ass: Postmodern Superheroes + Bloody Action + Major Sarcasm = One Kick Ass Movie. [online] Available at: http://voices.yahoo.com/kick-ass-postmodern-superheroes-bloody-action-major-5840744.html?cat=2 [Accessed: 7 Aug 2013].

         Reading material about the movie Kick-Ass

Genette's Transtextuality

Gérard Genette is a French literature theorist which most well known for his theory of transtextuality. Originally transtextuality has five sub groups. Four of them which are intertextuality, architextuality, metatextuality, and hypotextuality can be applied into films. Genette took the general idea of intertextuality and changed it to the “co-presence of two or more texts”, quotations being the most common example for this. Architextuality refers to the position of the text. Either directly or indirectly into a generic category due to its title, even before the audience has seen the work. Metatextuality is the relation between one text and another, whether the text is clearly cited or just referred to. Finally, hypertextuality refers to the relationship between two which transforms, modifies, elaborates, or extends the hypotext.

The Hero's Journey

In 1949, Joseph Campbell described a pattern known as The Hero's Journey or The Monomyth of many narrative stories around the world in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. Image above explains how a hero in a story starts in an somewhat ordinary world and then proceed to begin his adventure after being approached. In Batman for example, the main character Bruce Wayne was used to be a boy from a very wealthy family until one night, both his parents were killed in front of his eyes which represents the "call to adventure" stage of the story. In addition, Batman Begins shows how Bruce Wayne gain his combat ability which represents the "meeting the mentor" stage. Unfortunately, Kick-Ass falls into this category as well. Despite having some deconstructivism elements in the beginning of the movie, the pattern of the Hero's Journey can be clearly seen as the story goes.

Derrida's Deconstruction

Jacques Derrida is well known for his semiotic analysis which is known as deconstruction which often associated with postmodernism. In his lecture "Structure, Sign, and Play," Derrida decenters the idea of structuralism. “The center is not the center. The concept of a centered structure…is contradictorily coherent. And, as always, coherence in contradiction expresses the force of desire.” He believes that the center doesn't exist naturally because people will always have to relate it to something else they recognize. However it is needed to be cleared that it does not mean that the center does not exist at all. Relating this idea into Kick-Ass, it seems that Kick-Ass' unique storyline and postmodern elements are all supporting the idea of deconstruction, but is it a deconstructive movie as a whole?

Kick-Assery

Unlike any other superhero characters, the main character in Kick-Ass, played by Aaron Johnson does not have an actual superpower. In fact, neither any of his sidekicks nor villains have a superpower. Kick-Ass relies completely on his combat ability and physical strength to fight against his enemies. Furthermore, unlike other superheroes, Kick-Ass as a normal person is a stereotypical awkward nerdy teenager. Starring Chloe Grace Moretz as Kick-Ass' sidekick, hitgirl, and Christopher Mintz-Plasse as the villain, Kick-Ass is filled with characters playing as teenagers. However, despite having teenage characters and comical artstyle in the movie, Kick-Ass is rated R for its violent fighting scenes.