School of Historical and Philosophical Studies - Theses
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ItemThe truth is out there: the transcendent validation of postmodernism in the X-Files( 2000)The contention of this thesis is that the postmodern thematics and modes of representation of The X-Files are not incompatible with a cohesive ideology that is established on the basis of a transcendent frame of reference. Despite its appeals to anti-authoritarianism, intertextuality, polysemy, and self-reflexivity, The X-Files finds less correspondence with established postmodern theory that claims the untenability of transcendent truth than with New Age theories of identity and culture. Postmodern theory (with its connections to French poststructuralism), and New Age theory share a heritage in the 1960s anti-authoritarian protest movements. However, while theories of postmodernism engaged with neo-Marxist political and cultural theory, questioning the Marxist appeal to the objectivity of scientific knowledge, the antecedents of New Age theory - the American West Coast counterculturalists - turned to ancient mystical traditions to redefine identity and culture. The motivations of the counterculturalists can now be found in seminal New Age theories such as Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics (1975) and Marilyn Ferguson's The Aquarian Conspiracy (1980), theories that argue for a New Science that connects to pre-modern mysticism and therefore "proves" that postmodernism is the new legitimate form of identification and knowledge. This thesis argues that The X-Files' self-conscious representation of itself as a postmodern television series operating within a postmodern cultural context coalesces with New Age definitions of postmodernism, and that therefore The X-Files is simultaneously postmodern and ideological.