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?

 As the stereotypical binary opposition of good vs evil.

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

 It uses moments of history as aesthetics.

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

The clip of Ronald Raegan playing in an East German office is intertextual footage which is significant to blur the lines between fiction and reality.

Martin carrying out his army work like normal relates to Todorov's theory a we know from the genre of spy and action that this will change. 

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

That the East is very lively and not strict like how many presume through stereotypes.

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

It shows the merge between low brow culture and high brow culture like the pop song "Sweet Dreams are Made of This" playing in the supermarket scene as diegetic audio.

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

The use of various pop culture intertextuality styles into an effective pastiche.

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)?

Products with great advertisement despite being low quality can still succeed. 

2) What is Fredric Jameson's idea of 'historical deafness'? How can the idea of 'historical deafness' be applied to Deutschland 83?

We only understand history through the media which Deutschland 83 is an example of as we learn about the cold war through it.

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

An increased amount of consumerism which is when people are buying things for the aesthetics rather than the actual qualities 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?

Pop music (like the music in the supermarket) and classical art in the home in West Germany.

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

Bricolage is the juxtaposition of old and new media text to source new meaning which occurs in Deutschland 83 with the 80s fashion and music with a spy genre.

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.

Deutschland 83 reflects the decline of meta narratives as it looks at both capitalist and communist narratives instead of creating its own grand narrative. This shows how Deutschland 83 is a key representation of post modernism as it shows how as a society we are moving away from grand and dominant ideas like religion and huge political ideas.

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 like Big Brother (2000 onwards) represents a simulated environment where the audience views a hyper reality to help perceive celebrities as normal which is what Deutschland 83 does as it dramatizes the events occurring to make Martin seem more like us rather than a grand spy.

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

A key scene is the supermarket scene as it shows the merging of low brow and high brow culture firstly with the lined up food in stock which is intertextuality to Warhol's pop art style. Furthermore, the pop song "Sweet Dreams are Made of This" represents of music is becoming part of lower class culture as instead of classical music, its a pop song.

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.