TV: Postmodernism and Deutschland 83

Notes and definitions

Postmodernism: a late 20th-century style and concept in the arts, architecture, and criticism, which represents a departure from modernism and is characterized by the self-conscious use of earlier styles and conventions, a mixing of different artistic styles and media, and a general distrust of theories. (Source: Dictionary definition)

A brief history

Postmodernism is linked to the premodernism and modernism eras.

Pre-modernism: up to late 19th century.

Religion dominates society.

Modernism: late 19th century to mid-20th century

Science dominates; religion questioned; distinct difference between high culture (e.g. art) and low culture; industrialisation.

Postmodernism: mid- to late-20th century to present

Blurring of high and low culture/art and popular culture; media-driven hyper-reality; style over substance.

Postmodernism and the media

Postmodernism is often defined by scepticism, irony, self-referentiality or intertextuality.

What does that mean? The Simpsons provides an example. The structure is a classic family sitcom but the content ridicules authority (including its media conglomerate owner) and is full of intertextual references to other films, TV shows and popular culture.

Further examples of postmodernism

An example in architecture would be Las Vegas; in art, Andy Warhol's pop-art of the 1960s.

Award-winning 1998 German film Run Lola Run (‘Lola Rennt’) is credited with revitalising German cinema with a postmodern take on crime drama that features a repeating narrative and a blurring of genres.

Postmodernism: theory and terminology

Strinati

Dominic Strinati identified five ways to define postmodernism:

1. ‘Media-isation’ of culture – we make sense of reality using media texts

2. Emphasis of style over substance e.g. celebrity, reality TV

3. Breakdown of difference between art and popular culture

4. Confusion over time and space – modern society is built on the instantaneous

5. Decline of meta-narratives or grand narratives (e.g. religion or political theories such as communism)

Key terms

There are some key terms we need to learn when studying postmodernism in media texts:

Bricolage

The juxtaposing of old and new texts, images, ideas and narratives to create new meanings.

Hyper-reality

Jean Baudrillard argued that audiences view the ‘copy’ of reality in the media as more real than the original. Fredric Jameson discussed the idea of ‘historical deafness’ by suggesting the media-isation of history means we only understand historical events through their media representation.

There are some key terms we need to learn when studying postmodernism in media texts:

Pastiche

This refers to media products that imitate the style of another text, artist or time period. Pastiche is an example of intertextuality and takes a positive view of the original source.

In contrast parody is similar but ridicules the original source (e.g. Scary Movie parodies horror).

Fredric Jameson on parody and pastiche

“Pastiche is, like parody, the imitation of a peculiar or unique, idiosyncratic style, the wearing of a linguistic mask, speech in a dead language. But it is a neutral practice of such mimicry, without any of parody’s ulterior motives, amputated of the satiric impulse, devoid of laughter.”

Jameson suggested pastiche does not offer up comment on society or history – it is simply done because it is ‘stylish’. He marks this as an example of ‘historical deafness’.

Deutschland 83: a postmodernism text

The following scenes of Deutschland 83 provide excellent examples of bricolage, hyper-reality and pastiche:

• Opening scene: 0.00 – 3.00
• Title sequence followed by archive footage: 8.10 – 9.15
• Running/supermarket scene: 17.10 – 18.10 

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 - you'll need to save the factsheet to USB or email it to yourself in order to complete this at home. Read the factsheet and answer the following questions:

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)?

- Bruno, Borat and Ali G were the examples given of the breakdown on the distinction between culture and society. Society views his character as the real person and not him as a actual real life person without the character.

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

- The decline of historical context

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

- Style over substance is basically the fact that people (society) and media have made it seem as if your appearance plays a big part in whether you are successful or not. Brands such as Apple are successful because everyone buys it due to all the styles, colours however it is really no different then many other phones. We also have reality Tv shows such as "Keeping Up With The Kardashians" which glamourizes the looks, surgery and richness all these women have.

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?

- This can be applied to Deutschland 83 because of the differences between the two sides of Germany (East and the West), East Germany was the poorer and at the family party they did not have classical music, the colours seemed much duller and we even saw two young boys trying to bring Shakespeare books however, the West side is was much more bright, and they had champagne and the daughter performed a classical song. 

High art- opera, ballet, theatre, visual arts like paintings  was for an elite and educated group however low art/popular culture- film, TV, pop music. This was for the poorer. 

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

 - referring to the idea of mixing references

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.

The audience pleasures are mainly personal identity, diversion, personal relationships and surveillance.

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.

Genre- Deutschland 83 presents a conventional approach to genre. The men are represented as being strong and the heroes, while the women have a less dominant role. However, we could argue that women have some authority as it was Martin's aunt who had the idea of using him to go under cover. 

Ideology- In Deutschland 83, a postmodern approach of ideology is presented. Although Martin is supposed to be the hero and is the 'good' character, he and his accomplices can be seen doing 'evil' things. For example, they killed the real Moritz Stamm.

Audience 2- Deutschland 83 offers a postmodern approach in the way the narrative is structured. A conventional media text is expected to provide comfort and reassurance for the largely passive audience. However, Deutschland 83 challenges and questions expectations and values. The audience is not given a happy ending straightaway, they are required to actively engage with the drama before reaching a conclusion.

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

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

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