Postmodernism & Deutschland 83: blog tasks
Media Magazine - A Postmodern Reimagining of the Past
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’ The Cold War – the state of tension and hostility between the Soviet bloc countries and the West from 1945 to 1990 – has inspired a series of film and media texts within the spy genre. These texts often present the East and West as binary opposites through codes and conventions. 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?
Deutschland 83 however is not your typical Cold War text for a number of reasons; but perhaps the most significant is that it has a young Stasi officer as its main protagonist. It is an example of a text that reimagines the past by blurring the established views of the Cold War through a postmodern treatment, perhaps accounting for its success (it was the first German language TV programme to air on a USA network; it has become the highest-rated foreign-language drama in UK history). Postmodernism is characterised by the self-conscious use of historical styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media, including the playful use of intertextuality, blending of fact, fiction and genre hybridisation, pastiche, parody and irony. So, for Media Studies students Deutschland 83 is a particularly good starting point for an analysis of postmodern treatments.
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 – Reagan talks of the ‘quiet men’ who conceive and order this ‘greatest evil’ in ‘carpeted well-lit offices.’ We are in such an office, but it is in West Germany with Laura Rauch, an East German high-ranking female Stasi officer assertively positioned through a slow tracking shot as she takes on board the significance of Reagan’s message. 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 by our communist 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. It finishes in a comedic fashion with both guards bursting into laughter as the actors leave (and we later see Martin give a Shakespeare book to his mother for her birthday).
4) How does the party scene at Martin's mum's house subvert stereotypes of East Germany in the Cold War?
One of the ways that the text challenges the conventions of Cold War dramas is through its representation of the East. Naturally, there is no attempt to sanitise the activities of the Stasi: Martin’s hand is broken, Moritz is
assassinated in the name of ideology and Lenora is callous and her manipulation of her nephew and his sick mother. However, beyond that the text uses postmodern generic hybridisation to move beyond spy-genre typicality and explore the fictive East. Perhaps the most revealing is the party scene at Martin’s house when he returns from leave in East Germany. 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. 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 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. 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 reimagining 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
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)?
Postmodern reality now incorporates art in the form of media texts and today we make sense of reality with reference to media texts. The media reality of an event or an object can be more ‘real’ for audiences than the object itself. 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, is the idea of historical deafness. 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. 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.
There once was a time when high art was removed from popular culture. High art such as opera, ballet, theatre and the visual arts were only accessible to elite groups whilst low art was intended for the masses. In postmodern culture Andy Warhol created multi-coloured prints of the Mona Lisa (high art) and Campbell’s soup cans ( low art) 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. In Deutschland 83 martin is surprised when he hears a song ( Sweet dreams-1983) in the supermarket as he isn't used to hearing pop music.
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.
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. Human history is full of these grand narratives from religion to political/economic theories.
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. 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.
7) Now look at page 4 of the factsheet. How does Deutschland 83 demonstrate aspects of the postmodern in its construction and ideological positioning?
Whilst some contemporary media texts can be seen to be postmodern in their construction, many modern texts rely on traditional methods of construction. Some texts appear to ‘know’ they are postmodern whilst others can be seen to be part of the postmodern culture. Deutschland 83 is based on true events which makes it the based an actual history. Through the use of spy conventions, narrative arcs e.g. there is a construction and ideology of postmodernism built up within this show.
8) Which key scenes from Deutschland 83 best provide examples of postmodernism? Why?
The opening scene where 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.’ We are in such an office, but it is in West Germany with Laura Rauch, an East German high-ranking
female Stasi officer assertively positioned through a slow tracking shot as she takes on board the significance of
Reagan’s message.
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