Postmodernism & Deutschland 83: blog tasks

 Postmodernism & Deutschland 83: blog tasks

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?

There was a stereotypical binary ‘good vs evil’ shown. The communist East is presented grey and stark, no billboards, culture or entertainment and strict limitations of citizens’ movements and availability of certain foods (e.g. coffee and bananas). The capitalist West, in contrast, is a world of department stores, restaurants and cars, pop-culture and entertainment and free movement.

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 – Reagan talks of the ‘quiet men’ who conceive and order this ‘greatest evil’ in ‘carpeted well-lit offices.’

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

There is Todorrov's equilibrium theory shown when Martin was  carrying out his fairly humble work for the Stasi and this is soon to be displaced as we return to a conversation between Lenora and another high-ranking Stasi official about sending Martin to West Germany to spy on General Edel, who is thought to be colluding with America. The decision is made in an office that recreates 1980s mise-en-scène alongside tense and reflective exchanges that perfectly imitate and pastiche the period. In the scene that follows, Martin and his antagonists play a chess game (in itself a symbol of the Cold War) over uneasy dialogue and knowing glances, embracing spy genre conventions.  This is significant as the genre shown captures the narrative of the TV drama and it's close relation to reality.

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

In the scene, 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 re-imagines the

representation of the East beyond the operators of the restrictive state to the humanity, care and affection of everyday family and friends. The vibrant youth camaraderie, anthemic rock music and positivity are in contrast to Lenora who represents the callous manipulative officialdom that is more stereotypically present in representations of East Germany. She looks on with displeasure, repeatedly in profile, through an ominous, dark kitchen hatch.

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

The idea of breaking down distinctions between high and low art and incorporating elements of popular culture is key to a postmodern treatment. 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’ as Martin wonders at the volume and choice of products available in the West. In homage to the gadget-saturated spy genre (think of Q in the James Bond movies) there is a sequence where Martin’s mentor, Tobias Tischbier, trains him in espionage techniques. The surveillance equipment used in the scene encodes the spy genre. However, the montage editing, jump cuts, soundtrack and humorous insertion of pop culture references as Martin learns different pronunciations of German words blends different artistic styles into an effective pastiche.

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

Ultimately though, 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’. A key theorist at A level is Jean Baudrillard with his ideas of ‘Simulacra’ – representations that depict things that have no original. We cannot know for certain how Eastern and Western Europeans behaved during this time – what we are seeing is only a re-imagining and one that is influenced by the present. According to postmodern theorist Baudrillard, Simulacra reveal that there is no fixed, absolute truth; and Deutschland 83 certainly challenges our preconceptions of this period of history.

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.

* The characters Bruno and Borat have more ‘reality’ for film audiences than their creator Sacha Baron Cohen. Cohen’s films rely on the fact that the characters he creates are seen as ‘real’ people and he is able to get away with saying and doing things that a ‘real’ person could not. Cohen is only ever interviewed ‘in character’ so his creations have a voice but he does not.

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

According to Jameson, the idea of historical deafness was proposed. 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. This is seen in Deutschland 83 as people make their own interpretations about the cold war period based on how it is presented within the TV drama, however the series doesn't fully showcase the reality of the living conditions in the east being poor compared to the west ,for example, so it's not fully representative of reality.

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

Contemporary culture places values appearances over function. The culture celebrates external factors such as good looks in a person rather than internal qualities such as intelligence and talent. Entertainment and diversion is favoured over more serious concerns.

e.g.

• 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. People will pay high prices for products which bear the logo of a fashionable label regardless of the actual quality of the product.

• The modern rise of celebrities launched through reality television programmes such as Big Brother can be seen as the culture celebrating style over substance. Many celebrities are now famous for being famous rather than for an identifiable talent or ability.

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).

• Advertising (low art) often makes reference to visual art (high art) or uses classical music (high art) to help sell its products.

This can be applied to Deutschland 83 due to the high art paintings shown in some scenes in the west and also the split screens showcasing different products from the two conflicted sides of the country. Furthermore, in the west a girl is singing for everyone, whereas in the east during the cold war, people were restricted from even enjoying themselves or seeking pleasure in others too.

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.

Some see the bringing together of high art and low art as being a ‘democratising’ process – making art available to everyone. Others however see the breakdown of the distinction between the two as removing the meaning from high art and reducing it to advertising/pop images and sound. In the TV drama, they refer to James Bond films when using a slip screen to showcase binary oppositions of capitalist values vs communist values.

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.

In postmodern society it is argued that people no longer believe there are absolute ways to explain reality. Perhaps high profile failures of some grand narratives (like the fall of the Soviet version of Communism in 1989) have led people to question whether it is possible to find an all encompassing ‘answer’ to social and economic problems. Postmodernism denies there can be any single truths/realities as most of our cultural understanding is based on the personal interpretations we make from the media representations that dominate our culture, therefore grand narratives are too simplistic and too narrow in their approach. Audiences still respond positively to classical structures and representations as they are more familiar and more reassuring. In the 1990s, however, postmodern construction of texts and ideas began to become more prominent in mainstream media. Some argue that after the events of 9/11 there was a return to more classical structures and approaches as the uncertain nature of the culture with its ‘war on terror’ and heightened vulnerability meant that people preferred the more comforting approach that conventional text construction provided. As 9/11 becomes more historically distant however, some media texts are beginning to revisit postmodern ideas and challenges to conventional ideas and structures are beginning to be more visible in mainstream media text production once more.

7) Now look at page 4 of the factsheet. How does Deutschland 83 demonstrate aspects of the postmodern in its construction and ideological positioning?

Reality TV focuses on the construction and ‘perfection’ of realities. Big Brother (2000 onwards) is a demonstration of a constructed reality (they live in a simulated environment and their experiences are constructed by the producers – we don’t see ‘real’ emotions, we see the emotions that are created by the constructed situations) and hyper-reality (an environment which magnifies and exaggerates real-life situations). The focus on creating celebrities from ‘normal’ people helps perpetuate the myth that the celebrity world is a better one than our own

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

Deutschland 83 exemplifies postmodernism through self-reflexive storytelling, nostalgic pastiche, and the blending of high-stakes Cold War politics with consumerist irony. Key scenes highlighting this include Martin’s overwhelmed reaction to a West German supermarket, the “cow steak” lunch, and his immersion in popular music and new tech, reflecting themes of hyperreality, consumerism, and the erasure of historical authenticity.