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?

The classic media representations of the cold war were good vs evil, capitalism vs communism, west vs east.

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 speech given by the American President is partly the reason the spying operation began as it gave them enough suspicion to begin.

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

You have the typical evil screaming villainous aunt that has a more sinister reason to be at her sisters birthday party. Then u have the hero Martin who is oblivious to what's waiting for him.

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

The stark difference of the East Germany we as and the West Germany we are seeing. In east even though everybody was supposed to have and be equal, only the ones in power had things that were seen as rich stuff which by our and western standards are seen as basic commodities. On the other hand west germany had much more freedom 

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?

As medialization 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 it does represent a historical moment but it focuses on the genre elements of spy and thriller to make it more entertaining.

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, Martins mom's party they play pop music and their lifestyle in general can be described as pop culture 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. In Deutschland 83 we can see the juxtaposition between East Germany and West Germany, in East Germany young people were listening to pop music, while in West Germany the daughter of the General was singing a classical song.

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.

"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."

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."

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.