Postmodernism & Deutschland 83

 

Media Magazine - A Postmodern Reimagining of the Past

Media Magazine 73 has a feature exploring Deutschland 83 as a postmodern media product. Read ‘Deutschland 83 - A Postmodern Reimagining of the Past’ in MM73  (p18). You'll find our Media Magazine archive here - remember you'll need your Greenford Google login to access. Answer the following questions:

1) What were the classic media representations of the Cold War?

Representations of Cold War-era Germany often fit a stereotypical binary ‘good vs evil’. These texts often present the East and West as binary opposites through codes and conventions.

2) Why does Deutschland 83 provide a particularly good example for postmodern analysis? 

All postmodern texts create a relationship with the past and the first episode of Deutschland 83, ‘Quantum Jump’, does this with intertitles that frame its historical context. The location is the ‘East German Diplomatic mission’ situated in Bonn, West Germany in 1983. A woman is listening to US president Ronald Reagan’s ‘Evil Empire’ speech on a television set. This intertextual footage with its message to ‘pray’ for those who live in ‘totalitarian darkness’ creates ambiguity.

3) Pick out some of the aspects of the opening of episode 1 and explain why they are significant.

A sequence in part parodies typical interrogation scenes from the spy genre but the crime is not serious and it ends with the release of the two men and a trading of the texts by Shakespeare with those by Marx. It finishes in a comedic fashion with both guards bursting into laughter as the actors leave.

4) How does the party scene at Martin's mum's house subvert stereotypes of East Germany in the Cold War?

Martin arrives and embraces family members in a bright, sunlit garden setting. In the living room, young people (including his girlfriend, Annett) are drinking beers and dancing and singing to the Cold War era protest song ‘99 Luftballoons’ that is later played in the West German barracks too. This scene reimagines the representation of the East beyond the operators of the restrictive state to the humanity, care and affection of everyday family and friends.

5) What aspects of the episode set in West Germany offer postmodern elements?

Martin’s first taste of western consumerism, in the supermarket scene is playfully underscored by the Eurythmics 1980’s pop song ‘Sweet Dreams are Made of This’.

6) Finally, how does the article apply postmodern theory to Deutschland 83 and link it to the potential target audience?

The fact that our protagonist is a communist who is being manipulated by his own side indicates that this text is appealing to a post-unification audience who are ready to challenge fixed Cold War versions of ‘reality’.

Postmodernism Factsheet

Go to our Media Factsheet archive on the Media Shared drive and open Factsheet #54: Introduction to Postmodernism. Our Media Factsheet archive is on the Media Shared drive: M:\Resources\A Level\Media Factsheets. If you need to access this from home you can find our factsheet archive here (you'll need to use your Greenford login).

1) Read the section on Strinati's five ways to define postmodernity. What examples are provided of the breakdown of the distinction between culture and society (media-isation)?

Advertising can make or break a company irrespective of the quality of the product they are selling, a poor quality product can be commercially successful if it has great advertising whilst an excellent product can fail without it. Where once the reality of the product would create its success or failure (e.g. how well it worked), now the media reality of advertising determines the success of products.

2) What is Fredric Jameson's idea of 'historical deafness'? How can the idea of 'historical deafness' be applied to Deutschland 83?

He argues that as mediaization increases so the culture finds itself losing a sense of historical context. History is now reduced to ‘talking heads’ documentaries and historical knowledge is often based on media representations.

3) What examples and theories are provided for the idea of 'style over substance'?

People are strongly influenced by branding when buying products. The label sometimes becomes more important than

the product itself and packaging more important than the contents.

4) What examples from music are provided for the breakdown of the distinction between art and popular culture? Can this be applied to Deutschland 83?

Pop music (low art) often samples classical music (high art).

5) What is bricolage? What examples of bricolage can be found in Deutschland 83?

This idea of mixing references is referred to as bricolage (meaning jumbled). Bricolage refers to the process of adapting and juxtaposing old and new texts, images, ideas or narratives to produce whole new meanings.

6) How can the audience pleasures of Deutschland 83 be linked to postmodernism? Read 'The decline of meta-narratives' and 'Media texts and the postmodern' to help answer this.

Communism, Fascism, Liberalism and Socialism are some examples of grand narratives that have been applied in various contexts in the last 100 years. In postmodern society it is argued that people no longer believe there are absolute ways to explain reality.

7) Now look at page 4 of the factsheet. How does Deutschland 83 demonstrate aspects of the postmodern in its construction and ideological positioning?
The show is constructed to challenge traditional ideologies for example West = good, East = bad and represents them in a more nuanced way.

8) Which key scenes from Deutschland 83 best provide examples of postmodernism? Why?

The spy scene with the split screen is an example of pastiche of the spy genre which is postmodern.

There are multiple scenes with real old news broadcast which is an example of bricolage.