Why do long form television dramas from different countries offer different representations? [30 Marks]
Stranger Things and Deutschland 83 are both examples of long form television dramas. They are both set in the 1980s era, however, due to their difference in location (USA vs Germany), they contain different contexts and thus different representations.
The 1980s was a time in which there were few positive moments for women in society – Thatcher was PM – but men filled the vast majority of powerful roles. The traditional nuclear family unit – father goes to work; mother raises the children – was very much the norm in western culture. These characteristics can be applied to the ideologies of the theorist Van Zoonen, who stated that gender roles change throughout history. Incidentally, the gender roles of the dramas can be assumed to reflect those of the 80s. Stranger Things participates in this in many ways. The show demonstrates this traditional unit through Mike Wheeler’s family: a happy, stable and stereotypical ‘nuclear’ group. Mike’s sister, Nancy, is reinforcing this theory as she conforms to the stereotype of a typical teenager, e.g. sneaking out with Steve (reflecting theories such as Guantlett’s theories of identity). However, the show does drift from this theory. Despite these stereotypical features, Nancy also subverts them through excelling highly at school and being very individual when need be. Another thing that goes against the theory is the lack of a traditional family unit – Will Byers’. Will’s parents are divorced and so his mother, Joyce, is a single, divorced mother of two boys. She acts as both the worker and stay-at-home mother, with Jonathan (his older brother) even working to help out with funds. Despite this, the series gives an accurate representation of family and gender stereotypes in the 80s. Deutschland 83 represents social groups in a different way. East Germany is shown as rightly controlled and promotes women’s equality, whereas West Germany is less controlled; military positions are male-dominated. In addition, the first episode depicts a large scale of white characters in both East and west Germany, with the only black character being the American General. We see a lot of tension of the Cold War between both sides, especially when Martin is sent from the East to the West by his aunt undercover. We see a huge contrast in the different sides, The West seems to be much more relaxed and Martin is very surprised by how laid back it is, whereas, his home in the East is represented as very militarised and having a very strict border control. Another dominant difference was the lighting and the colour shown in the supermarket scene, when Martin fist witnessed the range of bright colours from all the fruits as they had limited supplies in the East he was surprised by their amount of goods.
bell hooks is a theorist who developed a theory of women and feminism. She states that feminism is the struggle to end patriarchal oppression and that not all women are discriminated the same way or to the same extent. She believes that it can vary dependent on one’s ethnicity and class. When concerning the dramas, it is safe to assume that they are set within patriarchal societies since they generally reflect what life was like for ordinary people in the 80s. Most of the power positions are filled by men, even if they are not particularly competent in these roles. In both dramas, conflict occurs against a backdrop of scientific mishap or political turmoil, both spheres heavily dominated by men. Stranger Things depicts a variety of female characters, all of which seem to go through varying levels of oppression but struggle against it. Eleven escapes a laboratory and takes down government agents (most of which were men). She is young girl who is targeted by patriarchal confinement and yet she is able to fight against it. Nancy is an ordinary teenage girl and yet she denies Steve Harrington’s sexual advances, even when he pushes. This successfully communicates her masked strength and power that she otherwise rarely shows. Despite the fact that her patriarchal oppression is on a much smaller scale to Eleven’s, she still shows the same amount of determination and struggle to get past it. Joyce is one of the most noticeably oppressed characters within the drama. She is a working class, single mother that is single-handedly taking care of two teenage boys. Her living situation is significantly different to that of the Wheelers. When Hopper is interrogating her about her son’s disappearance, a sense of patriarchal oppression can be identified. He is seen to patronise her mothering abilities by suggesting Will had ran away to live with his father and holds a dismissive attitude about his disappearance. Despite this, Joyce demonstrates her struggle to overcome this oppression by standing up to him. In spite of her fragile state and Hopper’s higher authority, she is strong with her arguments and demonstrates her powerful nature as a mother and a character within the series. In Deutschland 83, there is a limited number of female characters that are not all descriptive enough or detailed enough in the first episode to make judgments about. This alone emphasises the theory as the lack of representation of women demonstrates the oppression against women in that era. Despite this, there are a couple of significant female characters within the series. Most notable, would be Martin’s Aunt Lenora. She defies this stereotype as she is a woman in a position of power and high authority who is playing politics with male counterparts. Despite the overwhelming sense of patriarchy that surrounds her, she remains confident and cold when she communicates with them – as if they have no effect on her whatsoever. One may argue that her being a person of good education and a high class has diminished the struggle that she would face due to patriarchy and this shows through her power that is both equal to and greater than some male characters. according to hooks, if she were someone like Joyce, she may not have succeeded in getting this position in society.
Stranger Things is heavily influenced by the cultural icon of the American small-town community developed by Hollywood cinema, not least in the 80s. The series’ representations of pop culture and classic 80s film and television have global recognition (by international audiences used to being positioned as Americans), given the success of global Hollywood blockbusters of that era). The story line was inspired by similar genres that contained children’s adventures. E.T (1982) is a typical example of an 80s film which consisted of children hiding an alien from their mother and the government. The series uses intertextuality – such as the boys riding their bikes and Eleven’s character – in order to emphasise this representation. Both the film and series connote evil views of the government and override their power. A small town in America is also seen as innocent and safe. This is portrayed through Hopper, the chief at the begging of the series as he clearly states nothing bad ever happens in the town of Hawkins; however Stranger Things subverts this idea further on in the first episode as everything seems to go wrong and the town is in a huge amount of danger. Deutschland 83 reflects specifically German concerns about cultural amnesia/ remembering that may date back to their mid-20th Century history, but also apply to the division and reunification of Germany – these concerns being expressed in recent media products which explore the East German experience in a way that represents the ambiguities of that experience which were buried in the triumph of the West at reunification. In the episode, the difference between he two sides is represented through the supermarkets in the West, showing how everyone has moved on with their lives, whereas in the East, they are living in memory of the war in a very poor country with limited supplies. However, the spy narrative is of global cultural resonance and helps explain the international success of the series, despite its poor audience figures in Germany. With Martin spying on the West, it makes the series more appealing to audiences as the current context is very tense at the time of the Cold War. Therefore, the addition of a spy helps to attract more viewers and create a story-line behind the situation.
Overall, the variance in contexts between the two TV dramas seems to be one of the most significant factors in telling why they hold different representations. Despite the dramas being set in the same era, the different locations hold different contexts and so their representation are influenced by these.
The 1980s was a time in which there were few positive moments for women in society – Thatcher was PM – but men filled the vast majority of powerful roles. The traditional nuclear family unit – father goes to work; mother raises the children – was very much the norm in western culture. These characteristics can be applied to the ideologies of the theorist Van Zoonen, who stated that gender roles change throughout history. Incidentally, the gender roles of the dramas can be assumed to reflect those of the 80s. Stranger Things participates in this in many ways. The show demonstrates this traditional unit through Mike Wheeler’s family: a happy, stable and stereotypical ‘nuclear’ group. Mike’s sister, Nancy, is reinforcing this theory as she conforms to the stereotype of a typical teenager, e.g. sneaking out with Steve (reflecting theories such as Guantlett’s theories of identity). However, the show does drift from this theory. Despite these stereotypical features, Nancy also subverts them through excelling highly at school and being very individual when need be. Another thing that goes against the theory is the lack of a traditional family unit – Will Byers’. Will’s parents are divorced and so his mother, Joyce, is a single, divorced mother of two boys. She acts as both the worker and stay-at-home mother, with Jonathan (his older brother) even working to help out with funds. Despite this, the series gives an accurate representation of family and gender stereotypes in the 80s. Deutschland 83 represents social groups in a different way. East Germany is shown as rightly controlled and promotes women’s equality, whereas West Germany is less controlled; military positions are male-dominated. In addition, the first episode depicts a large scale of white characters in both East and west Germany, with the only black character being the American General. We see a lot of tension of the Cold War between both sides, especially when Martin is sent from the East to the West by his aunt undercover. We see a huge contrast in the different sides, The West seems to be much more relaxed and Martin is very surprised by how laid back it is, whereas, his home in the East is represented as very militarised and having a very strict border control. Another dominant difference was the lighting and the colour shown in the supermarket scene, when Martin fist witnessed the range of bright colours from all the fruits as they had limited supplies in the East he was surprised by their amount of goods.
bell hooks is a theorist who developed a theory of women and feminism. She states that feminism is the struggle to end patriarchal oppression and that not all women are discriminated the same way or to the same extent. She believes that it can vary dependent on one’s ethnicity and class. When concerning the dramas, it is safe to assume that they are set within patriarchal societies since they generally reflect what life was like for ordinary people in the 80s. Most of the power positions are filled by men, even if they are not particularly competent in these roles. In both dramas, conflict occurs against a backdrop of scientific mishap or political turmoil, both spheres heavily dominated by men. Stranger Things depicts a variety of female characters, all of which seem to go through varying levels of oppression but struggle against it. Eleven escapes a laboratory and takes down government agents (most of which were men). She is young girl who is targeted by patriarchal confinement and yet she is able to fight against it. Nancy is an ordinary teenage girl and yet she denies Steve Harrington’s sexual advances, even when he pushes. This successfully communicates her masked strength and power that she otherwise rarely shows. Despite the fact that her patriarchal oppression is on a much smaller scale to Eleven’s, she still shows the same amount of determination and struggle to get past it. Joyce is one of the most noticeably oppressed characters within the drama. She is a working class, single mother that is single-handedly taking care of two teenage boys. Her living situation is significantly different to that of the Wheelers. When Hopper is interrogating her about her son’s disappearance, a sense of patriarchal oppression can be identified. He is seen to patronise her mothering abilities by suggesting Will had ran away to live with his father and holds a dismissive attitude about his disappearance. Despite this, Joyce demonstrates her struggle to overcome this oppression by standing up to him. In spite of her fragile state and Hopper’s higher authority, she is strong with her arguments and demonstrates her powerful nature as a mother and a character within the series. In Deutschland 83, there is a limited number of female characters that are not all descriptive enough or detailed enough in the first episode to make judgments about. This alone emphasises the theory as the lack of representation of women demonstrates the oppression against women in that era. Despite this, there are a couple of significant female characters within the series. Most notable, would be Martin’s Aunt Lenora. She defies this stereotype as she is a woman in a position of power and high authority who is playing politics with male counterparts. Despite the overwhelming sense of patriarchy that surrounds her, she remains confident and cold when she communicates with them – as if they have no effect on her whatsoever. One may argue that her being a person of good education and a high class has diminished the struggle that she would face due to patriarchy and this shows through her power that is both equal to and greater than some male characters. according to hooks, if she were someone like Joyce, she may not have succeeded in getting this position in society.
Stranger Things is heavily influenced by the cultural icon of the American small-town community developed by Hollywood cinema, not least in the 80s. The series’ representations of pop culture and classic 80s film and television have global recognition (by international audiences used to being positioned as Americans), given the success of global Hollywood blockbusters of that era). The story line was inspired by similar genres that contained children’s adventures. E.T (1982) is a typical example of an 80s film which consisted of children hiding an alien from their mother and the government. The series uses intertextuality – such as the boys riding their bikes and Eleven’s character – in order to emphasise this representation. Both the film and series connote evil views of the government and override their power. A small town in America is also seen as innocent and safe. This is portrayed through Hopper, the chief at the begging of the series as he clearly states nothing bad ever happens in the town of Hawkins; however Stranger Things subverts this idea further on in the first episode as everything seems to go wrong and the town is in a huge amount of danger. Deutschland 83 reflects specifically German concerns about cultural amnesia/ remembering that may date back to their mid-20th Century history, but also apply to the division and reunification of Germany – these concerns being expressed in recent media products which explore the East German experience in a way that represents the ambiguities of that experience which were buried in the triumph of the West at reunification. In the episode, the difference between he two sides is represented through the supermarkets in the West, showing how everyone has moved on with their lives, whereas in the East, they are living in memory of the war in a very poor country with limited supplies. However, the spy narrative is of global cultural resonance and helps explain the international success of the series, despite its poor audience figures in Germany. With Martin spying on the West, it makes the series more appealing to audiences as the current context is very tense at the time of the Cold War. Therefore, the addition of a spy helps to attract more viewers and create a story-line behind the situation.
Overall, the variance in contexts between the two TV dramas seems to be one of the most significant factors in telling why they hold different representations. Despite the dramas being set in the same era, the different locations hold different contexts and so their representation are influenced by these.
Comments
Post a Comment