Jameson

During the class discussion on Jameson, we discussed schizophrenia as “the breakdown of the signifying chain.” By this, I think he meant that “schizophrenia” arises when there is a break down between Signifiers and the Signified. He says that the Signified is a creation of cultural inter-textuality between multiple Signifiers. When, for one reason or another, there is a break down, and the Signifiers do not add up to any specific Signified, schizophrenia occurs. He describes schizophrenia as a “heap of fragments,” or a bunch of stuff that doesn’t quite fit together. This notion works well with the notion of pastiche. Pastiche is imitation of an original without any particular motive. It is like parody, but without the motives of illuminating the original. The concept of pastiche reminds me of schizophrenia because pastiche is bankrupt. It is an imitation without a cause. Pastiche is a “heap of fragments” (of signifiers) that imitate those of the original, but they do not come together to signify anything. Pastiche uses signifiers of the original because they are familiar, and without a purpose. These two concepts definitely capture the notion that Post-Modern culture is moving from “depth” towards “surface.” By this I mean that without the connectivity between Signifiers and the Signified, we are losing a deeper level of understanding and we are moving toward sameness.