The definition of postmodern has been a “subject of much debate” throughout the history of 20th and 21st century (Seldon 197). In the postmodern world, there are no “unity, coherence, and meaning” anymore (199). Jean-François Lyotard explains that the modern attempt to “realize” the reality has failed to convey it and ended to be a mere representation of reality (Lyotard 74). The rules of art are constantly changing as time flies. Lyotard asserts, we are in the age of “slackening” where artistic value is determined by the “profits” that the works of art yield (76). The postmodern, in Lyotard’s words, is “a part of the modern” that recurs every moment of post-modern to fight against totality, to present the unpresentable, and to understand the
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While Fredric Jameson defines “parody” as the aspect of “modern” and “pastiche” as that of “postmodern” (Jameson 1131), Hutcheon strongly refutes that postmodernism is a creative and ironical parody. Her idea of parody borrows things from the past and attempts to let the audience, or the people, to acknowledge the limitation of the representation. In this perspective, Heiner Müller’s Hamlet/Machine (1978) had been regarded as a representative postmodern play. Mark Fortier stated that “the fragmentation, complex irony, overlaying of cultural quotations, and mixing of traditional and current cultural images” are the stylistic aspects of postmodern in Hamlet/Machine (Fortier 186). Indeed, the ironic parody of historical and cultural reference in Hamlet/Machine seems to be fit into the range of postmodernism. However, after the 1990s, the political revolutionary aspects of parodying East Germany in the late 70s and 80s in Hamlet/Machine, no longer held its significance as a postmodern art piece. Before the reunification of Germany, Hamlet existed “between a world dominated by Stalin and one dominated by Coca Cola” …show more content…
Hutcheon tries to note that “there is not a break” or “outside” but only co-existing from within (Hutcheon, A Poetics xiii). She argues that if we are to call postmodern as a form, it is to be named “historiographic metafiction” which is “intensely self-reflexive and yet paradoxically also lay claim to historical events and personages” (5). Postmodernism challenges “the institutions” that attempt to form a context in a totalizing sense and the “contemporary debates about the margins and the boundaries of social and artistic conventions” (9). Müller’s Hamlet defines Denmark as “concentration camp” in relation to historical context of “Wall” in the middle of Germany and whispers “WASH THE MURDER FROM THY FACE MY PRINCE/AND MAKE A CHEERFUL FACE FOR THE NEW DENMARK” (Müller 826). By identifying Hamlet’s Denmark and his Germany, Müller attempts to tell the audience to face the brutality of the history. For example, the allusion of Marxist theologian Ernst Bloch in Hamlet’s “SECOND CLOWN IN THE SPRING OF COMMUNISM” (826), and scene 4, “PEST IN BUDA BATTLE OF GREENLAND” indicates the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 when Soviet force invaded Budapest (827). Hamlet also overlaps himself as a destroyer by indicating Richard III and Macbeth. He tears up the photograph of the author to even blur the boundary of the text and its creator and also to emphasize the power of destruction as a
While Fredric Jameson defines “parody” as the aspect of “modern” and “pastiche” as that of “postmodern” (Jameson 1131), Hutcheon strongly refutes that postmodernism is a creative and ironical parody. Her idea of parody borrows things from the past and attempts to let the audience, or the people, to acknowledge the limitation of the representation. In this perspective, Heiner Müller’s Hamlet/Machine (1978) had been regarded as a representative postmodern play. Mark Fortier stated that “the fragmentation, complex irony, overlaying of cultural quotations, and mixing of traditional and current cultural images” are the stylistic aspects of postmodern in Hamlet/Machine (Fortier 186). Indeed, the ironic parody of historical and cultural reference in Hamlet/Machine seems to be fit into the range of postmodernism. However, after the 1990s, the political revolutionary aspects of parodying East Germany in the late 70s and 80s in Hamlet/Machine, no longer held its significance as a postmodern art piece. Before the reunification of Germany, Hamlet existed “between a world dominated by Stalin and one dominated by Coca Cola” …show more content…
Hutcheon tries to note that “there is not a break” or “outside” but only co-existing from within (Hutcheon, A Poetics xiii). She argues that if we are to call postmodern as a form, it is to be named “historiographic metafiction” which is “intensely self-reflexive and yet paradoxically also lay claim to historical events and personages” (5). Postmodernism challenges “the institutions” that attempt to form a context in a totalizing sense and the “contemporary debates about the margins and the boundaries of social and artistic conventions” (9). Müller’s Hamlet defines Denmark as “concentration camp” in relation to historical context of “Wall” in the middle of Germany and whispers “WASH THE MURDER FROM THY FACE MY PRINCE/AND MAKE A CHEERFUL FACE FOR THE NEW DENMARK” (Müller 826). By identifying Hamlet’s Denmark and his Germany, Müller attempts to tell the audience to face the brutality of the history. For example, the allusion of Marxist theologian Ernst Bloch in Hamlet’s “SECOND CLOWN IN THE SPRING OF COMMUNISM” (826), and scene 4, “PEST IN BUDA BATTLE OF GREENLAND” indicates the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 when Soviet force invaded Budapest (827). Hamlet also overlaps himself as a destroyer by indicating Richard III and Macbeth. He tears up the photograph of the author to even blur the boundary of the text and its creator and also to emphasize the power of destruction as a