Postmodernism and 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?

"The classic media 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 is an example of a text that reimagines the past by blurring the established views of the Cold War through a postmodern treatment. 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. Therefore, 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 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."

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

"The party scene at Martin’s house when he returns from leave in East Germany is probably the most revealing. 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."

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?

"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

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?

"Fredric Jameson argues that as mediasation 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 can be applied to Deutschland 83 as Deutschland does reflect certain real events that have happened however the show also focuses on the drama and spy thriller genre which loses the historical element of the show, we as an audience have no choice but to believe the real events being retold in Deutschland 83." 

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."

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?

"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. Pop music (low art) often samples classical music (high art). This can be applied to Deutschland 83 as in East Germany they play pop music at the party at Martin's house and their lifestyle in general can be described as pop culture so for the masses, whereas in West Germany no music is played throughout the garden party apart from the daughter of the General singing a classical song which reflects the high culture and sophistication." 

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

"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 Deutschland 83 we can see the juxtaposition between East Germany and West Germany, in West Germany the daughter of the General was singing a classical song whereas in East Germany young people were listening to pop music." 

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. The spy thriller genre in Deutschland 83 provides an audience with the pleasure of diversion/entertainment. This can be linked to Baudrillard's theory of hyper reality, where he argues that this culture perceives the media representation as more real that the ‘original’ and stated that we live in a culture where the ‘fake’ is more readily accepted than the ‘real’. Since the young audience Deutschland 83 is targeting was not around during Germany in 1983, we don't know what is fiction and what is actually real therefore we trust any source of media representation of any text." 

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

"Modern texts may react against the postmodern in an attempt to reintegrate more structured ideas - these texts can be seen to be creating more conventional and reassuring ideas in their construction. They create hyper-realities but the ‘perfect’ reality is a structuralist one which attempts to provide the comfort of meeting narrative and generic expectations and providing clear ideological answers to conflict between binary oppositions. This is seen in Deutschland 83 due to the whole narrative of Martin being an undercover spy in the West which is solely to provide us entertainment and make the show more interesting. However, along this narrative there are also real moments to educate us on The Cold War, such as including Ronald Reagan's speech and real documents. "

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

The supermarket scene provides one of the best examples of postmodernism as the abundance of food in West Germany portrays the capitalist society whereas in East Germany where many products/food were not available to them reflects the communist society. In addition the opening sequence where we see actual footage of Ronald Reagan's speech is shown to inform us on the past and to see why the East Germans were so outraged which nearly led to the brink of WWIII.