The Rise of the Nostalgic Spy Thriller: Globalizing the Neo-Cold War Narrative of Totalitarian State Socialism in the TV Series Deutschland (2015–2020)

IF 0.4 3区文学 0 LITERATURE

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES Pub Date : 2022-08-01 DOI:10.5325/complitstudies.59.3.0590

Claudia Sadowski-Smith

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引用次数: 1

Abstract

abstract:This article examines the portrayal of German Democratic Republic (GDR) socialism in the TV series Deutschland, the first foreign-language show to premiere on a U.S. network. Paving the way for the globalization of Germany's TV industry, the series exemplifies the rise of the nostalgic spy thriller. It employs the aesthetic and ideological codes of a genre rooted in the 1960s to evoke the time period and ideological certainties of the Cold War from a contemporary perspective. Deutschland focuses on the Stasi's division of counterintelligence to portray the GDR as a totalitarian regime, run by corrupt elites, which subjugated its population and supported terrorism and illegal arms trading. The series employs the conventions of "historical event TV" and re-created historical settings to claim veracity and authenticity for plotlines that invoke sensationalized coverage of Cold War conflicts and distorted allegations against the GDR. Deutschland dismisses GDR efforts to create and globalize an alternative system, based on principles of anti-imperialist solidarity with the global South, and caricatures postsocialist nostalgia as an elite sentiment for the re-creation of totalitarianism. The series contributes to neo-Cold War imageries that evoke a past of Western superiority over European state socialism, which has little to offer to a future post-neoliberal world.

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怀旧间谍惊悚片的崛起：电视剧《德意志》中极权主义国家社会主义的新冷战叙事全球化（2015-2020）

摘要：本文探讨了第一部在美国电视网首播的外语电视剧《德意志》中对德意志民主共和国社会主义的刻画。该剧为德国电视业的全球化铺平了道路，体现了怀旧间谍惊悚片的兴起。它采用了植根于20世纪60年代的一种类型的美学和意识形态密码，从当代的角度唤起了冷战的时间段和意识形态确定性。《德意志报》聚焦于斯塔西的反间谍部门，将民主德国描绘成一个由腐败精英统治的极权主义政权，该政权征服了人民，支持恐怖主义和非法武器交易。该剧采用了“历史事件电视”的惯例，并重新创造了历史背景，以声称情节的真实性和真实性，这些情节援引了对冷战冲突的耸人听闻的报道和对民主德国的歪曲指控。德国驳斥了民主德国基于反帝国主义与全球南方团结的原则，并将后社会主义怀旧讽刺为精英对极权主义重新创造的情感。该系列有助于塑造新冷战时期的形象，唤起西方对欧洲国家社会主义的优越感，而欧洲国家社会主义对未来的后新自由主义世界几乎没有什么贡献。

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COMPARATIVE LITERATURE STUDIES LITERATURE-

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期刊介绍： Comparative Literature Studies publishes comparative articles in literature and culture, critical theory, and cultural and literary relations within and beyond the Western tradition. It brings you the work of eminent critics, scholars, theorists, and literary historians, whose essays range across the rich traditions of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas. One of its regular issues every two years concerns East-West literary and cultural relations and is edited in conjunction with members of the College of International Relations at Nihon University. Each issue includes reviews of significant books by prominent comparatists.