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The Simpson family has been a frequent visitor to
millions of households around the globe
for two decades and the TV show centering on the
yellow family is arguably the most successful
TV series of all time. But THE SIMPSONS is not only
economically successful, it is also intelligent.
Recent publications have investigated the show''s
philosophical and psychological implications and have
thereby proven that the show is more than an
''ordinary'' animated cartoon. The show has perfected
the postmodernist aesthetic, an aesthetic that
is characterized by meta-referentiality and
intertextuality. The incessant references to TV shows
and movies past and present may lead some academics
to claim that THE SIMPSONS is the kind of fiction
that only
springs from and leads to fiction, but John Barth
already noted some twenty years ago that "all fiction
about fiction is in fact fiction about life." Following
this line of thought, THE SIMPSONS has to say a lot
about the society that makes the show successful. The
book at hand discusses the TV show THE SIMPSONS
from two related perspectives: its relation to
postmodernism and its relation to the postmodern
American society.
About the author
Michael Fuchs is a doctoral candidate in the department of
American studies at the University of Graz, Austria. His Ph.D.
dissertation investigates meta-referentiality in the horror film
genre. He is currently co-editing a volume on postmodern theory,
forthcoming by LITVerlag, 2009.
