What is Postmodernism and how can it affect the structure of Narrative?
Encyclopia Britannica define Post-modernism in its most briefest as:
Postmodernism, also spelled post-modernism, Â in Western philosophy, a late 20th-century movement characterized by broad skepticism, subjectivism, or relativism; a general suspicion of reason; and an acute sensitivity to the role of ideology in asserting and maintaining political and economic power.
Inspired by the historical research of the French philosopher Michel Foucault, some postmodernists defend the comparatively nuanced view that what counts as knowledge in a given era is always influenced, in complex and subtle ways, by considerations of power. There are others, however, who are willing to go even further than Marx. Foucalt strongly believed that âdisciplinary powerâ was shaped through invisibility, and that universal truth was more than often the ideas of a ruling class disseminated via a process of discourse through the masses to set social standards and taboos that are said to be absolutes, and are as a result maintained through law and order.Â
^ Michel Foucalt:Â https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Foucault
Post-modernism emphasises liberty from these rules and chains, and strongly encourages to think outside the box to some extent, to use oneâs imagination to open their mind to the possibilities of the alternatives, particularly in the arts, and not be bound by the normalities and social expectations laid out in the so called âuniversally validâ logic and and truth Marx would argue we are tricked into believing. âThere is such a thing as human nature; it consists of faculties, aptitudes, or dispositions that are in some sense present in human beings at birth rather than learned or instilled through social forces.â
http://www.britannica.com/topic/postmodernism-philosophy
So How does this all relate?
defying convention is one of the primary aspects of post-modernism, and in doing this we must recognize the conventions of, in our case, narrative structures we consider to be universally accepted and consistently repeated. I spoke of these in an earlier post, but Andy Wyattâs âThe Complete Digital Animation Courseâ also describes the consistencies of story research and structure in the post-production sections, recognizing the seven most basic meta-narratives as:
âAs a race, humans have been telling stories for thousands of years. It has been suggested by scholars that there is only a very limited number of possible stories - Why We Tell Stories (Continuum, 2004), Christopher Booker theorizes that whatever the story, it can always be stripped down to one of these seven basic structures.â
Wyatt, A. (2010) The complete digital animation course: Principles, practices, and techniques: A practical guide for aspiring Animators. United States: Barronâs Educational Series.
Although âHoodwinked!â demonstrates characteristics of several of these typical story structures like all do, we can recognize that the film does in fact make use of post-modernist concepts in order to structure itâs narrative, these include flashbacks that combine to create a narrative structured that is dis-organised and fragmented, whilst encouraging the considerations of more than one single interpretation of ongoing events.Â
âIn its simplest terms, a story must have a beginning, a middle, and an end. At its most complex, a story can have complicated plots and narratives, sub-plots, metaphorical meanings, symbolic references and narrative twists to keep an audience on their toesâ
- The main twist in âHoodwinkedâ (2006 SPOILERS) being that the Granny turns out to be living an extreme lifestyle, a lie and a secret kept from her Grand-daughter Red for many years:
^ Redâs Grandmother skydives from a helicopter:Â http://pixgood.com/hoodwinked-granny.html
Martin Goodman of the Animation World Network argues that âIn a medium as wonderfully variegated as animation, one hates to deal in generalities.â Therefore to some extent, Animation as a medium is much more capable of pushing the boundaries of fragmented Narrative Structure because of its capability of portraying any situation imaginable by the limitless potential of the software and other methods (like simple pencil and paper) used to create it!
^ At one scene in the film, an avalanche nearly falls onto Red and her Goat friend as they make their way towards Grannyâs house to deliver the basket of Goodies. This actually turns out to have been caused by Granny herself using explosives on a snowy mountain face to try and elude some agents of the main storyâs antagonist (unknown at this point) and make her way back home in time for Redâs arrival.
âPostmodernism does not predate animation. It dates back only as far as the late 1970s, the conceptual masterwork of philosopher Jean-François Lyotard. There is considerable academic dickering on what constitutes the postmodern, as it can apply to artistic, cultural, or economic definitions. Definitions of Postmodernism convey more sense if it is seen as a movement with somewhat defined tenets.â
Goodman, M. (2013) Dr. Toon: The animation Criticâs art - defining our terms. Available at: http://www.awn.com/animationworld/dr-toon-animation-critic-s-art-defining-our-terms (Accessed: 9 February 2016).In Cartoons, People, Television, 2D
âAnimated film serves as a site for exploring certain aspects of postmodernism, particularly the realms of double-coding, intertextuality, and carnival comedy. Itâs use of pastiche and parody, of extended quotation, and of multiple perspectives â of heteroglossia within one small discourse â situate it as a prime property for post modern analysis.â
-Â Salmon, C. (2007) Animation essays. Available at: http://animationessays.blogspot.co.uk/2007/01/20-th-century-visual-culture-modernism.html (Accessed: 9 February 2016).
âMetanarrative -Â Lawrence Kuznar describes metanarratives as grand narratives such as the Enlightenment, Marxism or the American dream. Postmodernists see metanarratives as unfairly totalizing or naturalizing in their generalizations about the state of humanity and historical process (2008:83)â
Postmodernism and Its Critics
Daniel Salberg and Robert Stewart and Karla Wesley and Shannon Weiss
As for criticisms in the post-modern:
âPauline Rosenau (1993) Rosenau identifies seven contradictions in Postmodernism:
Its anti-theoretical position is essentially a theoretical stand.
While Postmodernism stresses the irrational, instruments of reason are freely employed to advance its perspective.
The Postmodern prescription to focus on the marginal is itself an evaluative emphasis of precisely the sort that it otherwise attacks.
Postmodernism stress intertextuality but often treats text in isolation.
By adamantly rejecting modern criteria for assessing theory, Postmodernists cannot argue that there are no valid criteria for judgment.
Postmodernism criticizes the inconsistency of modernism, but refuses to be held to norms of consistency itself.
Postmodernists contradict themselves by relinquishing truth claims in their own writings.â
As I had stated before, Hoodwinked does follow standards and typical narrative plots of conventional story structures such as âOvercoming the Monsterâ, and Postmodernism critcizes the inconsistencies of modernism, yet refuses to be held to norms of consistency itself, therefore Postmodernism as a concept is flawed because it challenges convention and consistency yet dislikes the inconsistency of modernism.
The way in which Hoodwinked relates events to each other in a non chronological timeline through the flashbacks is interesting however, as it is uncommon in childrenâs media. The flashbacks split the narrative into segments that are essentially personal interpretations/testimonies, and there are consistencies between each of the stories, such as the avalanche and the parachuting of Granny, which without the combination of each of the stories seemed odd and confusing. This is a post-modernist method of storytelling, DESPITE the film showing inherent structuralist characteristics of the seven basic story structure like Overcoming the Monster and The Quest.Â
The Looking Glass : New Perspectives on Children's Literature, Vol 16, No 2 (2012)
This study onto childrenâs responses to the film demonstrates some of the claims I have made in detail, as the film offers new âperspectivesâ that children with  âadequate learning approaches which cater for our new digital hypermedia worldâ can relate and find entertainment in. You would assume that children would find fragmented post-modernist/post-structuralist narratives and characters with various perspectives confusing. We all know the Grimm Brothers version of the Red Riding Hood tale, but the Hoodwinked Tale in short goes something like this, which you would think would seem slightly more confusing/far-fetched for children in itâs complex deconstruction/revision of the original:
âIn the plot of Hoodwinked, the Police have been called upon to investigate what had happened at Grannyâs house. The candy recipes were stolen and many shops are out of business. Apparently, Red and Granny get attacked by the Wolf. The police interview Red, Wolf, Woodcutter and Granny and each one of them tells his/her version of the story. Eventually, the Rabbit turns out to be the one stealing the recipes and he gets arrested along with his team. Â Hoodwinked deconstructs the story in multiple ways by changing theencoded power relations, portraying intelligent, strong, assertive female characters, as the heroines, Red and her Grandma, are in a position of powerful active agents. Red is daring, adventurous, intelligent, assertive and ambitious. She is an audacious delivery girl who delivers cookies through the forest on her own. Overall Red is brave; she knows Karate and can defend herself when the wolf approaches her in the woods. Grandma is not like other traditional grandmas; she is a Superheroine. She has a tattoo on her neck and likes to live life to the extreme. She does extreme sports, bakes the best cakes and is able to depend on herself; she is the one who saves Red when the Rabbit captures her. The Woodcutter is not the saviour and only happens to be there when the Wolf attacks Grandma. Grandma trains three months for a snow sports competition; she wins a medal for the battle of the iron cage gladiators. The reason she does not tell Red about her activities is because she does not want her family to worry.â
When asked how much they liked the Grimm brothers story, these children from âan American school in Beirut where students learn English, Arabic and Frenchâ âdid not like Grimmâs classical story a lotâ.
Also, young boys and girls tended to choose a favourite character that was the same gender as them. âPerhaps the [original Grimm Brothers] text is offering a dominant reading or it encourages this male-female dualism.â
On the other hand, when asked to respond to âHoodwinked!â Both boys and girls highlighted the lesson of not talking to strangers but girls seem to highlight more that a girl should obey her parents and listen to the different perspectives.Â
âMoreover, not all children understood the feminist encoded messages in the movie Hoodwinked. For example, not all girls thought that Red 2 is âbraverâ than Red 1, even though she plays karate and is able to defend herself against the Wolf. Red 2 is shown as scared in a number of instances but she gets over her fear and defends herself. For girls Red 2 is as good as Red 1, a lot cleverer and no necessarily that much braver than Red 1, whereas for boys Red 2 is a lot braver than Red 1, slightly more âgoodâ and a little cleverer than Red 1. On the one hand, girls do not perceive Red 2 as that much braver (60%) than Red 1 (43%) whereas all boys do. On the other hand, to boys Red 2 is not that much cleverer (60%) than Red 1 (28%) whereas all girls think so. Moreover, not many boys and girls describe Red 2 as beautiful and the same for Red 1. Only 12% of girls think Red 1 is beautiful but none of the boys think so. This could be interpreted in a positive way which is that they are not focusing on beauty which is one of the stereotypical attributes of the classical female heroines.â - Indeed the film does demonstrate some feminist aspects, not so related to Narrative Structure, but an interesting nation nevertheless, as Red fights the wolf as well as Boingo the Rabbit with her Karate, and the Grandmother turns out to be a daredevil. Red 1 (the original Grimm brother character) and Red 2 (Hoodwinked) do demonstrate differences in feminist attitudes however, as Red 2 is much more able on her own and a karate champion.
Finally, and possibly one of the most interesting remarks from the study
âBy offering multiple subject positions, this text allows both girls and boys to learn to position themselves from a different perspective, but when probed they take sides. None of the boys believed the wolfâs story but the girls who are female seem to trust the malesâ perspective more, which to a certain extent shows domination of male authority and power.  The stereotype of bad wolf is carried to Wolf 2. Even though the wolf is not bad in the revision, he is still perceived as so by many girls and boys.â - at a young age, socialisation and enculturation is taking place and is at itâs most noticeable, what we can see here is potentially already arising examples of male authority and the stereotypical tendency for young girls to be more understanding of people/characterâs situations and personal interpretations.Â
The stereotypical approach of the Wolf being bad is not so easy a concept to erase from childrenâs minds to evoke an understanding of post-modernist ideology, so perhaps these alternative methods of storytelling and character introduced to some children through the animated medium like in Hoodwinked can appear confusing, unusual and/or an outright deceptive lie.
- Dr Luma Balaa is an assistant Professor of English Studies in the Department of Humanities at the Lebanese University of Beirut. She obtained her doctorate in English Studies from Strathclyde University in Glasgow, Scotland where her doctoral dissertation was on Children,Gender  and Fairytales: A Case Study of Childrenâs Response to Snow White. Her research interests include fairytales, Anglophone Lebanese Australian writers, womenâs writings, and representations of women in Cinema.
Childrenâs Responses to Hoodwinked, the movie