Postmodernism and Deutschland 83

Media Magazine - A Postmodern Reimagining of the Past

1) What were the classic media representations of the Cold War?

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. These texts traditionally offer a pro-West ‘them versus us/ good versus evil’ ideological viewpoint through their narratives and how characters are represented. 

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

Deutschland 83 however is not your typical Cold War text for a number of reasons; but perhaps the most significant is that it has a young Stasi officer as its main protagonist. It is an example of a text that reimagines the past by blurring the established views of the Cold War through a postmodern treatment, perhaps accounting for its success (it was the first German language TV programme to air on a USA network; it has become the highest-rated foreign-language drama in UK history). 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.

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 are in such an office, but it is in West Germany with Laura Rauch, an East German high-ranking female Stasi officer assertively positioned through a slow tracking shot as she takes on board the significance of Reagan’s message. 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. It finishes in a comedic fashion with both guards bursting into laughter as the actors leave (and we later see Martin give a Shakespeare book to his mother for her birthday).

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. 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. In homage to the gadget-saturated spy genre (think of Q in the James Bond movies) there is a sequence where Martin’s mentor, Tobias Tischbier, trains him in espionage techniques. The surveillance equipment used in the scene encodes the spy genre. However, the montage editing, jump cuts, soundtrack and humorous insertion of pop culture references as Martin learns different pronunciations of German words blends different artistic styles into an effective pastiche.

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

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?

Jameson argues for historical deafness, that as mediation 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'?

An example provided is that 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.

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. For example, pop music (low art) often samples classical music (high art). In Deutschland 83, during the supermarket scene, the song Sweet Dreams (1983) can be heard, the protagonist Martin is extremely surprised during this scene as he is not used to pop culture.

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.

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. Deutschland 83 is based on actual human history and is full of these grand narratives. 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.

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. Deutschland 83 contains narrative arcs, follows generic codes and conventions of the spy genre and its narrative conclusions focus on more traditional values and ideologies that is usual in postmodernism. 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 opening scene of Deutschland 83 is a great example of postmodernism as it uses actual footage of the US President Reagan making his evil empire speech, referring to the soviet union as evil. There is also the blurring of fiction and reality with spy genre themes and realism/documentary elements.