11.23 Post - Jameson on The Simpsons

     I think that Fredric Jameson would say that the image in question from the Simpson’s is definitely postmodernist for a couple main reasons. There is a quote from Jameson that relates directly relates to how and why this image is postmodernist when he states that “However we may ultimately wish to evaluate this populist rhetoric, it has at least the merit of drawing our attention to one fundamental feature of all the postmodernisms enumerated above: namely, the effacement in them of the older (essentially high-modernist) frontier between high culture and so-called mass or commercial culture, and the emergence of new kinds of texts infused with the forms, categories, and contents of that very culture industry so passionately denounced by all the ideologues of the modern”. This quote is a direct correlation to the image from the simpsosn. The image from the Simpsons adapts a very famous old painting, from a different time period and different a social class and combines it with a modern twist to create something new. The aspect of this image that is, as Jameson describes it “older (essentially high-modernist)” and “high culture” is the clear reference to the Mona Lisa. The “mass or commercial culture” aspect is how the Simpsons put their own twist on it and make it relevant to the show. It’s drawn in “Simpsons” style where as anybody who watches the Simpsons would know that it is from the show even if they don’t know what episode it’s from. Another way in which The Simpsons is mass culture is because it’s a very well known TV show and TV is a way to expose something to the masses. The combining of both a high culture and mass culture is a way in which something can be postmodernism as described by Jameson. The image from the Simpsons uses the main aspect of the woman from the original image, but it adds its own twist to it to make it original and different by having the town of Springfield in the background. It is in this way that the Simpons have made an panting from a different time and culture new and relevant that Jameson would says this image is postmodernist.
     An additional way in which this image is postmodernist and how Jameson would view it as this, is displayed in a quote by him that states that “modifications in aesthetic production are most dramatically visible”, which is exactly what this image does. We can assume that it is a modern version or maybe even making fun of the Mona Lisa and we see that they two are different and we can immediately see this when we look at the image. The image from the Simpsons is a drastic change in the aesthetic production of the original painting by Leonardo De Vinci and these changes are dramatically visible. Both this reason and the reason I stated above is why Fredric Jameson would say that the image has many postmodernism characteristics.