Postmodernism & Deutschland 83

 Media Magazine - A Postmodern Reimagining of the Past:

'Deutschland 83 - A Postmodern Reimagining of the Past’ in MM73  (p18)

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.

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

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. All 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.

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?

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.

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

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

Factsheet #54: Introduction to Postmodernism:

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)?

Art once attempted to reflect reality. 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.

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'?

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?

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

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.

Postmodernism denies there can be any single truths/realities 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. 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. One way to identify this is to compare the conventional way each media concept can be used in media texts and more postmodern applications of the concept.

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... demonstrate aspects of the postmodern in their construction and/or ideological positioning – these texts can be seen to be part of postmodern culture, ...comment on and critique the postmodern through their themes and values – these texts use aspects of postmodern culture but are critical of it, ...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. 

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

At the point when Martin was preparing as the montage can be connected to postmodernists and the intertextuality can be picked up from other covert agent movies, for example, James body and different movies, for example, rough who have numerous montage scenes when preparing.