Question Three - To what extent can the set episode of 'The Bridge' be viewed a Postmodern? (15)

Question Three - To what extent can the set episode of 'The Bridge' be viewed a Postmodern? (15)

1. Postmodernism = the collapse of distinction between the real and the simulated, and the blurring of boundaries between the physical world and its signification in society and culture.

2. Postmodernity = the period of time after WW2, when western society = dominated by consumer culture and information technology.

3. Understanding of crime drama, 'Nordic Noir' specifically, to decode. E.g. The level of this type of crime is typically exaggerated; violent, intricate crimes like those depicted are relatively uncommon.

4. Diagetic 'world' of 'The Bridge' = hyper-reality, Sweden/Denmark represented from a mediated perspective, linking to/depicting cultural/national/societal traits and values. How this is constructed.

5. Saga's professional world = hyper-real, based on cultural perception of 'the police force' as an institution = a constructed simulacrum, not experienced first hand. Is this what the police force is really like? Particularly in Sweden/Denmark as foreign countries to us as an audience. The representation is based on other, similar constructions across media products.

6. Shares similarities with other 'Nordic Noir' style media dramas - e.g. 'The Killing', 'Wallander'. and other contemporary 'Nordic Noir' influenced crime dramas such as the British produced 'Broardchurch'.

7. Theorist - Baudrillard argues media = creates hyper-realities based on continuous process of mediation. ('A real without origin or reality.')

8. What's encoded a 'real' (what we decode through the media products) = not 'real' actually a 'simulacrum' becoming a hyper-reality we accept as real because we are consistently exposed to it.

9. Theorist: Em Griffen (2012) - Our mental image of the perfect body, house, meal, sexual relationship have been shaped though constant exposure to recycled media depictions that have no factual basis, even though these are the images which create our expectations

10. Media images = seem more real than the reality they are supposed to represent.

11. Theorist: Levi-Strauss - media texts = made up of 'debris' which we recognsie from other other media texts, these are combined in a 'bricolage'. e.g. could be heard in a musical 'mash-up'/'remix'.

12. Intertextuality: acknowledgement of existing media texts, references to popular culture.

13. Key Terms: bricolage, self-reflexive, parody/pastiche, irony, ambiguity, narrative fragmentation/temporal distortion, anti-realist.