Postmodernism & Deutschland 83: blog task

 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)?

-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?

Historical deafness is when an audience believes that history happened as it did in the movies and are "deaf" to the actual reality of things.  In Deutschland 83, an example of historical deafness was when Martin returned to his house and they were having a BBQ, which could instantly give the audience the wrong image to what actually went on.

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

-People would rather buy a product based in it's brand and how popular it is rather than the actual quality of it.

-The modern rise of celebrities launched through reality television programmes such as Big Brother can be seen as the culture celebrating style over substance. Many celebrities are now famous for being famous rather than for an identifiable talent or ability.

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). 

When Martin arrived at the BBQ in the East, they were playing high culture German music. However in the West when Moritz found himself at a supermarket, they were playing pop music (Sweet Dreams). 

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

-Bricolage: The juxtaposition of old and new texts, images, ideas and narratives to create new meanings.

In Deutschland 83, an example of Bricolage was when the East were watching the Ronald Reagan speech. The settings juxtaposes the archive footage of the speech.

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.

Audience enjoy watching archive footage and a representation of the 80s because it has a nostalgic feel to it which makes the audience feel more engaged and included since it reflects actual reality. The meta-narratives in Deutschland 83 was the Able Archer but the series focuses on the fall of communism therefore meta-narratives were less understandable.

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.

West Germany is represented as very diverse and colourful. When Martin enters a supermarket, the items are colourful and are stacked perfectly on the shelves making it look fictional. This is an example of pastiche in postmodernism. The scene imitated the work of pop-art artist Andy Warhol which somewhat includes intertextuality.

8) Now look at page 4 of the factsheet. How does Deutschland 83 demonstrate aspects of the postmodern in its construction and ideological positioning?

The show is based on real historical events in Germany and how it was divided however the narrative is fictional.  The characters and props (mise-en-scene) are there to make the show feel as real as possible and therefore, creating the hyper-reality effect that is an aspect of postmodernism. 

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

A key scene that is an example of postmodernism is the spy scene because it reflects old texts within. The spy scene is similar to James Bond. 

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

Through scenes like the pastiche spy scence, a main audience pleasure would be nostalgia because they'd be reminded of James Bond which can also be seen as intertextuality.