Postmodernism & Deutschland 83

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 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? 

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 links to the idea of postmodernism in that real life footage from the 80s is being used within a text created in 2013.

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

Intertextual footage of Reagan is significant as it allows us as an audience to feel as though we are learning about something that is historically accurate and links to the audience gratification of surveillance of learning about the time period. Another aspect would be the title sequence as it is another audience pleasure of diversion as all the things we see in the sequence draw us in to continue watching and to anticipate the drama that will come later. the subsequent breaking of Martin’s finger to ensure he perfectly fits the profile of the West German piano-playing man (Moritz) who he is to impersonate is over-exaggerated. It is presented as an extended length. of shot and extreme closeup and is an example of a self- reflexive postmodern treatment. It draws attention to itself as artificial.

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

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 that is contrasted by the stereotypes and beliefs that eastern Germany would have been dreary, cold and even dystopian.

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. western opulence lavishly colourful images 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. Homage to James Bond and the spy thriller genre Martin has a spy training sequence with Tobias 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’.

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

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. This then leads those who are interested in the drama of historical fact to break their misconceptions.

1) Read the section on Strinati's five ways to define post-modernity. What examples are provided of the breakdown of the distinction between culture and society (media-isation)?

The breakdown of the distinction between culture and

society – (mediaization). 

-  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. In The X Factor contestants perform cover versions of cover versions of

songs (they copy copies). In a Queen themed night John and Edward sang ‘We Will Rock You’ – but they performed ‘the Five version’.

An emphasis on style at the expense of substance and

content.

The breakdown of the distinction between high culture

(art) and popular culture.

Confusions over time and space.

The decline of meta-narratives.

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. This can be applied to Deutschland 83 as it has aspects of documentary through its real life images/video and files that are true to the original historical facts being reproduced through a tv drama medium that gives out that historical knowledge through tv rather than actual personal research.

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 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. Jameson argues that this creates a cultural depthlessness. Like Baudrillard he sees the culture as being one where meaning is lost and all that is left is surface representation. However he also argues that this is sometimes countered by outrageous claims for extreme moments of intense emotion, for example, the shared cultural grief after the death of a celebrity. Jameson claims that these emotional outbursts 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?

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. This does link to Deutschland 83 to the extent that in the supermarket scene we can see the shelves stacked up in a very organised and almost 'too' perfect of a way that links to Andy Warhol's art. 

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

This idea of mixing references is referred to as bricolage. Bricolage refers to the process of adapting and juxtaposing old and new texts, images, ideas or narratives to produce whole new meanings. This is used in D83 with the use of documentary conventions of real clips and footage from the 80s.

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. In postmodern society it is argued that people no longer believe there are absolute ways to explain reality. 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. however, postmodern construction of texts and ideas began to become more prominent in mainstream media. people preferred the more comforting approach that conventional text construction provided. 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 fact sheet. How does Deutschland 83 demonstrate aspects of the postmodern in its construction and ideological positioning?

Deutschland 83 is the based on real life historical events of the Cold War and a series that implements postmodernism with crafted emotions to fictional characters and hyper-reality.

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

The supermarket scene in Deutschland 83 is the best example of postmodernism due to its intertextuality referencing Andy Warhol and the pop art movement.