Glee- Postmodern Approach

The writer of the article is Alan Payne who himself is a media studies teacher. The article was published in Media Magazine 34 in December 2010.

The article sets to explore:

- how the world is constructed
- how the world is mediated
- what the audience react and respond to

Alan Payne discussed 'Postmodernism'. He believed that Glee represented this through how they 'mixed' and 'broke' the rules. He thought that the show 'invites us' to laugh at itself laughing.

Glee shows the 'highly constructed' and 'mediated' world through Glees references and music attraction, he thinks that the audience are allowed to expect a production of each show in the future.


The article say that the actual world and mediated world is 'blurred'. Glee is a 'simulation' of everyday life (reality) but yet we are not far behind from this. The article suggests that challenges and 'competitions' help present this.

The article suggests that the character have importance and help the audience understand the episode more by providing 'flashbacks' and allowing the character to be the 'narration' of the scene.

Payne believes glee 'makes sense' of the world within a 'constructed world'. For example, one character called Kurt constantly has new outfit in almost every scene, this shows how outfits are constructed to create a different setting and meaning. He says this is 'competing claims of the truth'.

The article describes 'fiction within fiction' this implies how if it is trying to compare to reality it is drifting away as fake things are being included. For example, Will auditions for Les Miserables which is fiction however can also reach out to the audience as it may become common to them.

The article states 'characters whole reality is simply playful come and go' which implies how the simplicity of the world is shown and ignores the complications that are faced. It says that this 'leaves' the audience to make the 'right connections'.

Payne says how uniforms are important to this show, they are presented throughout such as the dancers and footballers, this shows the hierarchy in different groups of people.