Postmodernism & Deutschland 83: blog tasks

 Media Magazine - A Postmodern Reimagining of the Past

Read ‘Deutschland 83 - A Postmodern Reimagining of the Past’ in MM73  (p18). You'll find our Media Magazine archive here.

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'.

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’.

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

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. We cut to an interrogation sequence of two young actors in East Berlin who have bought some Shakespeare plays on the black market. This is conducted the protagonist Martin Rauch and a colleague. The sequence in part parodies typical interrogation scenes from the spy genre – 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.

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 sunlit garden setting. In the living room, people are drinking beers and dancing and singing to the Cold War era protest song ‘99 Luftballoons’.. 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?

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 glimpse of West Germany connotes western opulence – a chandelier, the lavishly colourful images of Gustav Klimt’s painting ‘The Kiss’ strategically placed within the wide shot. However, 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.

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

We don't know how Eastern and Western Europeans behaved during this time period – what we are seeing is only a reimagining and one that is influenced by the modern times. Simulacra reveal that there is no fixed, absolute truth; and Deutschland 83 certainly challenges conceptions that we have of this time period. Deutschland '83 used postmodernism because some of their target audience are younger people, therefore using postmodernism helped to blur high and low culture/art and popular culture. 

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 regardless of the quality of the product they are selling, an awful quality product can be commercially successful if it has great advertising whilst an great product can fail without it.

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 mediazation increases so the culture find itself losing a sense of historical context.  This can be applied to Deutschland 83 by mentioning the way there are comedic and unserious moments in the series, which makes audiences forget this is a reference to the past and The Cold War.

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

The modern rise of celebrities launched through reality television programmes such can be seen as the culture celebrating style over substance. Many celebrities are now famous for being famous instead of identifiable talent or ability. Jameson argues that this creates emotional outbursts which are a way of replacing the shallowness of style over substance. 

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?

In postmodern culture Andy Warhol created multi-coloured prints of the Mona Lisa and Campbell’s soup cans. He is also referred to in Deutschland 83 because of the large amounts of produce in the supermarket. In addition, 'Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This' was playing in the background of the same supermarket scene and shows Martin being baffled but also amazed by both the large amounts of produce and the song playing, indicating he isn't so used to pop culture being everywhere.

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

Bricolage is the process of adapting and juxtapositioning old and new texts, images, ideas or narratives to produce whole new meanings. Deutschland 83 juxtaposed Andy Warhol's produce art with the supermarket scene, which shows Martin being amazed by the large amounts of produce on display.

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.

Meta-narratives are the ideas and concepts that have been used to attempt to explain the way the world is and the way it should be. Deutschland 83 is full of grand narratives  that occurred during The Cold War.

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

Deutschland 83 use narrative arcs and follow conventions and their narrative conclusions focus on more traditional values. Deutschland 83 creates hyper-realities but the ‘perfect’ reality is a structuralist one which attempts to provide the comfort of meeting narrative and generic expectations.

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

 

The opening scene as it shows actual documents belonging to the US president.