The Construction of a Third Space in Good Bye Lenin!

Özlem GÜMÜŞÇUBUK

The Construction of a Third Space in Good Bye Lenin!

Kitapta bölümler > Araştırma Kitabı · 2021

Exploring Borders and Boundaries in the Humanities, Araştırma Kitabı, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (MA), USA , A, Uluslararası, 2021, ss 266-272, İngiltere

Özet

<a name="_Toc56595392">Chapter Eighteen</a><o:p></o:p><a name="_Toc56595393"></a><a name="_Toc54089694">The Construction of  Third Space in Good Bye Lenin!</a><o:p></o:p><a name="_Toc56595394"></a><a name="_Toc54089695">Özlem Karagöz Gümüşçubuk</a><a href="file:///C:/Users/Genel/Downloads/%C3%B6zlemg%C3%BCm%C3%BC%C5%9F%C3%A7ubukEXPLORING%20BORDERS&amp;BOUNDARIES-in-Humanities-2021-01-14-00-55AM-PostProofreadVersion%20(2).docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title="">[1]</a><o:p></o:p> Commemorating the 30th year of the fall of the Berlin Wall this year, Wolfgang Becker’s Good Bye, Lenin! is an attempt of the protagonist, Alex Kerner, to make history and make time stand still, so he can ensure that his mother’s health is protected from the political and ideological turmoil that takes place in German history. The movie is about the Kerner family to whom we are introduced during the celebration of the 40th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic. The family unit consists of Alex, who is twenty years old and lives together with his mother Christiane and his sister Ariane. Since Alex is the narrator, we are introduced to the fact that his father had gone to West Germany and never came back. Christiana is the mother figure who has devoted herself to the Socialist Party and consistently participates in its activities. Her devotion is so intense that when she sees her son taking part in an anti-government demonstration, she suffers a heart attack and falls into a coma. During the eight months, she is unconscious, revolutionary political changes take place. The Berlin Wall is knocked down. From then on, the East German government from then on is just a nostalgia overtaken by cultural and economic exploitation of the East by the West's consumable and cultural symbols. In this movie, the character of Alex Kerner attempts to create a “third space” for his mother in the last attempt to preserve her delicate health condition. <a name="_Hlk61007072">The movie touches upon issues such as nostalgia, the social construction of third space, and dislocation through the construction of a third space</a>. <o:p></o:p>As Homi Bhabha suggests, the redefinition of notions such as nation, culture, subject, and national identity proposes a concept of a Third Space, which provides a ground to resist nationalistic and ethnocentric discourses. According to Bhabha, “these ‘in-between’ spaces provide the terrain for elaborating strategies of selfhood – singular or communal – that initiate new signs of identity, and innovative sites of collaboration…” (Bhabha 1-2). Hence, he also states that the “borderline work of culture demands an encounter with ‘newness’ that is not part of the continuum. Similarly, this article aims to present examples of how Alex attempts to create not the actual German Democratic Republic for his mother but rather a renewed version, as Bhabha states, an “‘in-between’ space, that innovates and interrupts the performance of the present” (7). The first method in constructing the third space is achieved through the usage of nostalgia and ostalgia.<o:p></o:p> <div> <hr align="left" size="1" width="33%">  <div id="ftn1"> <a href="file:///C:/Users/Genel/Downloads/%C3%B6zlemg%C3%BCm%C3%BC%C5%9F%C3%A7ubukEXPLORING%20BORDERS&amp;BOUNDARIES-in-Humanities-2021-01-14-00-55AM-PostProofreadVersion%20(2).docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size:9.0pt;mso-bidi-font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:"Cambria",serif;mso-ascii-theme-font:major-latin;mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-latin;mso-hansi-theme-font:major-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Courier New";mso-ansi-language:EN-GB;mso-fareast-language: EN-US;mso-bidi-language:AR-SA">[1]</a> Assist. Prof. Dr., Ege University, Department of American Culture and Literature, İzmir, Turkey. <a href="mailto:karagozlem@yahoo.com">karagozlem@yahoo.com</a> <o:p></o:p> </div> </div>

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