Postmodernism Gossip Girl

The popular television series, Gossip Girl, reflects an example of Modern Realism which highlights the intrigue behind a secret identity. Gossip Girl welcomes everyone to New York City’s upper east side where we are introduced into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite. Throughout the show there is roller coaster romances and piles of secrets hiding aways for Gossip Girl to find, this show is sure to bring the upper east side and its drama into our lives. This show definitely has its own modern twist by making every episode filled with more drama than the last. There is also plenty of romance throughout this show with all the relationships going on. Modernist thinkers represented a revolution against the nostalgic pandering of Romanticism and the limited scope of Realism. Modernists began to shift their understanding of knowledge by emphasizing ways of knowing rather than objects of knowledge. They wanted to understand and explain how we know what we know. There were definitely mixed reactions to this new “modern” world of industrialized society.
Some saw it as a time of decadence and loss of stable value, but some saw it as a pinnacle of achievement. Gossip girl really portrays a new “modern” world of industrialized society, way different from back then. Everything in this show is all about materialism. The show is all about how fabulous these teens lifes are, except Gossip Girl is trying to tell the teens secrets to make their lives not a fabulous as they portray to be. Postmodernism is literally the period after Modernism.
While Modernist writers sought to express themselves and their experience in the world through new and different ways, they focused on documenting traditional and universal themes, suggesting that there is some “shared understanding” in the world. Postmodernists would reject this idea of any universality and claim that everything was subjective. Postmodernists can be summed up as an expression of the individual’s subjective perception of the relativistic world. The idea of “relativism” is particularly important for the Postmodernist wants to show that knowledge and Truth depend on perception. Some will argue that neither really exist. Postmodernists always ask When, Where, and For Whom when determining reality. Gossip Girl is a prime example of this. Throughout the whole show Gossip Girl is finding out When, Where, and For Whom before she puts out her
“blasts”. Realism, basically, is the attempt for a writer to tell a story such that is reflects actual life. Realist writers suggested that they tried to be a “mirror walking down the road.” This sentiment is misleading, for there is no such thing as unbiased writing. Realist writing includes not only the good and “romantic” but the sordid, low, disgusting, and the evil, and all are treated objectively. Objectivity is achieved when the author does not interfere explicit or criticize(or glamorize) the behaviors of the characters but lets them evolve naturally and without prejudice. Realism tried to give readers a “slice of life” as it actually is. Gossip Girl does a great job of showing realism. Gossip Girl really achieves objectivity in realism by giving the viewers the actual insight to the lives of the teens who supposedly have “glamorous” lives. Gossip girl exposes all of the teens secrets, to show the world they are just like everyone else. In conclusion, Gossip Girl reflects three literary characteristics. Gossip Girl shows us modernism, by showing the world in a “new” way. Gossip Girl also reflects postmodernism by relating the lives of the elite teens to regular teens lives. Lastly, Gossip girl achieves objectivity in realism. Gossip girl really gives readers a “slice of life” of the elite teens as it actually is, not how they portray it to be.