TV: Postmodernism and Deutschland 83

 Postmodernism & Deutschland 83: blog task

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)?

1. The breakdown of the distinction between culture and society – (mediaization).

2. An emphasis on style at the expense of substance and content.

3. The breakdown of the distinction between high culture (art) and popular culture.

4. Confusion over time and space.

5. 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?
This can be applied as the Deutschland is based on the cold war and the papers that were released after the war and how the show tries to show off German history, however, it is put in such a way where it makes it so that people will watch the show instead of going to find out what the cold war actually was such as using books or libraries.

3) What examples and theories are provided for the idea of 'style over substance'?
An example they give is Big Brother and all the celebrities that appear on there and how people admire them for their fame and not what they can do.

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?
In Deutschland, there is a lot of German electronic music and pop music such as "Sweet dreams" which is used to reflect the different sides as "Sweet dreams" is used in the Western side of the show and how the more traditional music can be heard during the Eastern side.

5) What is bricolage? What examples of bricolage can be found in Deutschland 83?
It refers to the process of adapting and juxtaposing old and new texts in order to produce a new meaning. In a way this can be applied to the whole narrative of Deutschland and how it is based on the Cold war, however, Martin's whole narrative was fabricated but inserted in such a way in which it made it seem somewhat real as he was also based of the ideas of the spies used during the war.

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.

We can apply this as we can see that the media producers may fetishise the poorer aspect of the show or in this case, it would be the Eastern side of Germany and how they are portraying one side to be better or even the "good side" and making the other side seem like the "bad side".

7) Read the analysis of media concepts and postmodern approaches on page 3 of the factsheet. Choose three of the concepts and write an example from Deutschland 83. Clue: genre, representation, ideology and audience would all be good options for this task.

In term of genre we can see that Deutschland present itself as a spy thriller drama, however there are small elements of romance that can be seen in the series despite the main narrative of the series. They try and mix these genres to create a more complex drama and by doing this they make things more in depth like how the romance aspect usually makes it so that the protagonist is more inclined to do things for their love interest, and how the spy aspect makes it so that they are more in danger making it so that the audience cannot know whether the protagonist will make it back.

In terms of representation they separate the two sides of Germany as the "good" and the "bad" as the East and West sides of Germany. However because the East is seemed to be more deprived and in poverty we can see the they will "fetishise" this poverty and make them seem more humble than the West that is otherwise presented as the rich and ignorant.

In terms of audience we can see that in the series that after Martin had finished his first job in the first episode, he talks about how he now wants to go back but his aunt asks him to do "one more" in this we can see how despite all of his efforts for the East he still is not being promised what he wanted or is being offered by.

8) Now look at page 4 of the factsheet. How does Deutschland 83 demonstrate aspects of the postmodern in its construction and ideological positioning?
We can see that they make the Eastern side seem more of the "good side" and the West more of the "bad side" this is highlighted when Martin is on the Bench and his trainer talks about how they want the public to be fat and obedient and then let the government take control of them.

9) Which key scenes from Deutschland 83 best provide examples of postmodernism? Why?
They show how in the West side of Germany they have all of these exotic fruits and are abundant in their food items and advanced technology, this is seen when Martin is running in the West and then he spots a shop windows displaying TVs, we can also see that the police men are eating ice creams which would imply that they are more laid back compared to the East. We can also see how the brands are more prominent in the West as when Martin's aunt brings his mother coffee it is of Nescafe a brand, and when we get the opening montage of Martin's training we can see that the font of the Western words are in a font that brands use such as the plastic being in the same font as they use in Lego.

10) Why might audiences enjoy the postmodern aspects of Deutschland 83? What audience pleasures might elements of bricolage or pastiche provide viewers?

In Deutschland we can see that there are brands in which audiences may recognise such as Nescafe coffee, the different fonts that words are written in such as the same fonts that popular brands will use. There is also themes of nostalgia as there are traditional German music such as "99 Luftballoons " and how in the supermarket scene it plays "Sweet dreams are made of".

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.