what i think of post modernism

I think that post modernism is purposely made to confuse the audience / person as it is what it is not.post modernism is a paradox as it has no structure, but it also uses structure to show that it has no structure. There are two sides of post modernism, one is pluralism and the other is

Hit Girl essay (part 2 to be added on)

The character called hit girl in kick ass is presented in so many different ways and fashions she can be classed as being a postmodern heroine, because she goes against all of the rules and stereo types that are in the marvel comic books for example, she is not sexualised in any way in her super hero costume. Now I will be moving on to deciding whether she is a pastiche or homage to marvel comic books.

In the film hit girl is portrayed as being a pastiche, this is because she is going against all of the rules that are in the marvel and other super hero / heroine comic books and there is a form of comical yet realistic looking violence in her roles in kick ass, for example when hit girl goes into Frank Domeagoes ground floor entrance to his home and hit girl has a pistol in the door mans mouth, or when big daddy is being tortured she goes around killing in a comical fashion. The rules and conventions that hit girl breaks in kick ass are: foul language, excessive violence, non revealing clothes, has the main role of fighting evil and she is in charge of kick ass and she is not helping out the general public as she if performing revenge with her father. All of these points are taking the piss of what rules and conventions that have been set by the comic book companies and further more there are other characters in the film that are portrayed as being pastiches such as kick ass and red mist. After looking into the conventions that are broken and how they are broken there is a strong suggestion that hit girls is shown to be a pastiche.

Next I will be looking into the few elements of hit girl that seem to be homage. Hit girl has a few references of her as being homage and these elements are showing a tribute to all of the comic books. Although hit girl is mainly pastiche there are elements that suggest she is homage and they are: hit girl is feared by all villains, she stops and prevents crime, she has a hidden identity, and she wears a costume for crime fighting. All of these elements are following the conventions of a comic book and therefore it could be classed as homage (a tribute to the creators of comic books), also there are other elements in the film that suggest homage, such as kick ass saving a man’s life and being the stereotypical super hero, but without the courage and powers of a comic book super hero, so kick ass is mainly a homage, but he has elements of a pastiche.

After looking into both sides of whether hit girl is pastiche or homage, i have came to the conclusion that she is mainly pastiche as there are so many factors that suggest her character is taking the mik of comic books, however there are a few elements that suggest her character is a tribute to comic books.

If Frederic Jameson was to look at hit girl’s character then he would possibly be disgusted and slate hit girl as she is portrayed as being postmodern and Jameson thinks that postmodernism is a load of tosh. He would also claim that hit girl is not postmodern as she is just another super heroine trying to be cocky and clever by making the audience think that she is a referential joke and also different to every other super heroine.

Jean-François Lyotard’s theory of there being a grand narrative could be applied to hit girls character as she is the main character and also there are elements of all three of the sections that his theory shows and they are: science, religion and politics. Hit girl show science by being interested and using the computers that are in her home,

hit girl essay.

I think that the character called hit girl in Kick Ass is shown to have a complicated personality to make the audience think and decide if she is a heroine or whether she is morally reprehensible. I would class hit girl as a postmodern heroine as she is preventing bad and stopping evil in their tracks, although the scenes with her are extremely graphical and her language is worse than terrible as she goes around saying “which one of you c*nts is next?” and this is extremely bad language for a 12 year old girl. I think that the director has purposely inserted this language into the film to take the audiences eye off of some of the violence portrayed in the film. Hit girls personality is very postmodern as she is shown in many different ways such as being an innocent looking school girl, and then it goes to her being a serious crime fighter that shoots, cuts peoples limbs off and throw knifes at men’s bits, this makes her character postmodern as she is shown in many different ways.

Some of the violence in hit girl’s roles in the film are rather comical as the violence is presented in a comical way such as throwing her knife at the man in the bathroom. Hit girl is shown as being the main crime fighter and she sees the most action in the film and this is a complete contrast to the comic book heroines as comic book heroines are shown as doing close to nothing in the books and that they are more eye candy for the male readers than super heroes.

Hit girls clothing is different to the stereotypical view of a marvel comic book super hero or heroine as the stereotypical view of a superhero is with them being in tight fitting clothes and having some sort of identity on their chest e.g. S for superman and a spider for spiderman ect.... whereas hit girl has what looks like a bikers leather jacket and trousers that look to be a size too big and this is not the typical superheroes clothing. In marvel comic books heroines are sexualised as they do nothing to help out the hero, this is shown as they all have big boobs and they also have very little on so this is showing the readers the slim figure of a heroine making them eye candy, whereas hit girl is wearing a baggy purple leather jacket and trousers, with purple hair, and a purple cape, she is also the superhero that does the most crime fighting in the film so the director has tried to overcome and stop the stereotypical views of a heroine by showing a girl with no sexual appeal and she is being the main crime fighter in the film.

Then in one of the advertisement posters there is a picture of hit girl in a school uniform and she is posing with her legs open and this suggests that there is some sort of sexual appeal to this image as a school uniform is a sexualised object with some grownups and also hit girl has her legs open and this could also be connotated as being sexual and finally her facial expressions all fit into the male gaze

After looking into hit girls character i have came to the decision that she is a postmodern heroine as she ticks all of the boxes for being a heroine, but she also goes against many of the stereotypes of a typical heroin as she is not sexualised and she is the main crime fighter, also her language is atrocious and the violence portrayed is very graphical, but at the same time comical.