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?

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.

2) Why does Deutschland 83 provide a particularly good example for postmodern analysis? 

Deutschland 83 provides a particularly good example for postmodern analysis because it uses nostalgia, pastiche and self - reflexive media techniques to transform a negative history, The Cold War, to a stylised, consumable "retro" aesthetic. They also kind of made it upbeat and slightly humorous. 

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

Some of the aspects of the opening of episode 1 could be the scene where Lenora was watching an old news from the actual Cold War which connotes its authenticity of the situations or events. This also shows how it did happen in the 1980’s, showing its significance due to its accuracy and emphasising the conflict between the West and East.

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 mum’s house subvert stereotypes of East Germany in the Cold War as naturally there’s no attempt in highlighting the activities of the Stasi, Martin. They also portrayed a vibrant, intimate gathering filled with community warmth.

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

The aspects of the episode in West Germany that offer postmodern elements is the use of Warhol’s idea during the scene in the supermarket. On this part it shows how the food resources are stacked together. There’s also a scene where Martin encountered a live television outside, showing the news, which kind of shows how the society have moved to a more improved digital media. 

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.

- 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?

Fredric Jameson’s idea of ‘historical deafness’ means how the mediaisation increases so the culture finds itself losing a sense of historical context. The idea of ‘historical deafness’ be applied to Deutschland 83 as they created a nostalgic, stylised and slightly dramatised version of the 1980’s Cold War, also showing some sense of fiction. 

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

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?

- 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

These can be applied to Deutschland 83 as we’ve seen how there’s a difference with how wealthy is side is. The West being much more rich and the East being much simpler. This is also shown in the split screen scene where we see how the West have more resources such as the scene with the fruit whereas the East doesn’t have any. This might be reinforced with the idea that the West is associated with Americans that’s why some of their words sounds slightly American.

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 some examples are could be the use of the Cold War as the whole narrative and adding some new bits of elements to it by styling and using nostalgia to create a more dramatised film. 

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.

 In postmodern society it is argued that people no longer believe there are absolute ways to explain reality. Perhaps high profile failures of some grand narratives (like the fall of the Soviet version of Communism in 1989) have led people to question whether it is possible to find an all encompassing ‘answer’ to social and economic problems. Whilst many people still have religious convictions, Britain can be seen to have become a more secular society demonstrating that religious ideas have less influence socially than they did before WW2.

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. Some argue that after the events of 9/11 there was a return to more classical structures and approaches as the uncertain nature of the culture with its ‘war on terror’ and heightened vulnerability meant that people preferred the more comforting approach that conventional text construction provided. As 9/11 becomes more historically distant however, some media texts are beginning to revisit postmodern ideas and challenges to 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 factsheet. How does Deutschland 83 demonstrate aspects of the postmodern in its construction and ideological positioning?

Reality TV focuses on the construction and ‘perfection’ of realities. Big Brother (2000 onwards) is a demonstration of a constructed reality (they live in a simulated environment and their experiences are  constructed by the producers – we don’t see ‘real’ emotions, we see the emotions that are created by the constructed situations) and hyper-reality (an environment which magnifies and exaggerates real-life situations). The focus on creating celebrities from ‘normal’ people helps perpetuate the myth that the celebrity world is a better one than our own.

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

Key scene from Deutschland 83 that best provides examples of postmodernism is the supermarket scene. This shows a combination of different cultures and elements, reinforcing the idea of bricolage and pastiche. This is where the scene kind of gets an idea of intertexuality from Warhol, where there was an idea of products being lined up or stacked next to each other precisely, showing the juxtaposition of different texts. Also, the idea that they used a pop song as a diegetic background song, emphasising the culture of the band.

There is a lot of challenging work here - you will have plenty of time to complete it so take it slowly, read around the subject and re-watch the scenes from the first episode on All4 to help develop impressive academic answers to these questions.