再見列寧：消費東德與新德國國族認同危機

Good Bye Lenin: “Ostalgie” and the Crisis of National Identity in the New Germany

本文以「文化記憶」與「空間的生產」等學理為研究取徑，檢視電影《再見列寧》（Good Bye, Lenin!）及其所再現之「懷舊東德」（Ostalgie）風潮的多重意義，嘗試從中釐清兩德統一之後德東人「懷舊東德」情結的社會、經濟、政治與文化脈絡，探析其以消費東德商品作為社群認同建構形式的「文化記憶」基礎。首先，在解析《再見列寧》歷史性的基礎上，本文之論述具體展示《再見列寧》乃一探究社群記憶和認同建構之社會性、儀式性、物質性與空間性的絕佳個案。其次，本文進一步剖析「懷舊東德」與《再見列寧》如何得以形成寄託「懷舊東德」情結的「文化記憶」媒介，成為德東人在德國人與東德人認同之外，建構第三種社群認同模式的社會性空間。再者，本文具體歸納兩德統一之後形成「懷舊東德」情結的社會、經濟、政治與文化因素，從中論證「懷舊東德」商品化，乃緣於新德國建立過程中「去東德化」統一政策與選擇性國史書寫暴力，導致德東人構成「沒有離開家卻已經移民」的「二等公民」自我認同、歷史情感之傷與國族認同差異危機的結果。最後，本文再進一步論證「懷舊東德」現象的物質文化基礎，及其所涉之社群記憶與遺忘政治。
本文針對《再見列寧》學理與歷史意義的多層次討論，提供一個從事歷史影片歷史性分析的新研究取徑，期對臺灣影視、應用史學的研究與教學，有所建樹。再者，運用「文化記憶」分析概念檢視《再見列寧》與「懷舊東德」現象，涉及懷舊商品化或人類社群消費特定「過去」之商業面向的關注，期對臺灣歷史學界從經濟視角從事歷史記憶的研究與學理探討，有所貢獻。

This article aims to interpret the movie Good Bye Lenin! and examine the historical significance of “Ostalgie,” or East German nostalgia, that the movie represents from the perspectives of material culture, cultural memory, and social production of space. In addition to looking into the larger social, economic, political, and cultural contexts in which the fashion of “Ostalgie” emerged, it intends to explore how it has been the “spatial” foundation for certain East Germans to construct an alternative identity in the New Germany by consuming the material manifestation of cultural memory over East Germany. Based on an interpretation of the movie in the first part, the second part of this article demonstrates that it can be considered as a case study of a historical film to illuminate the social, ritual, material, and spatial framework for the construction of collective memory and identity. Moreover, by defining the movie as a realm of memory, or media of cultural memory, of East Germany and “Ostalgie,” this article argues that the consumption, re-creation, reenactment of material culture inherited from East Germany have been used by East Germans to create an imaginative, social space to construct an alternative form of collective identity. Furthermore, this article moves on to examine the social, economic, political, and cultural elements of the emergence of “Ostalgie” and argues that it was also the consequence of the violence of the unification policy de-legitimatizing East Germany and of the selective writing of new national history. In other words, those social, economic, political, and cultural frustration and marginalization of East Germans after the unification of two Germanys as well as the historical trauma caused by the official discourse of national history in the New Germany altogether led to East Germans’ self-identification of second-class citizens who “have migrated without leaving home” and to the crisis of national identity after the re-unification. Finally, this article attempts to show how “Ostalgie” was manifested in the form of consuming products of daily life in the period of East Germany from the perspectives of material culture and cultural memory.
As a historical interpretation of the multiple meanings of Good Bye Lenin!, this article can contribute to the research and teaching of historiophoty and public/applied history by demonstrating a new approach to the study of historical films. Moreover, using analytical concepts of material culture, cultural memory, and social production of space, this article shows the possibility to studying the economic aspects of memory making by analyzing “Ostalgie” from the point of view of the commercialization of nostalgia and collective consumption of certain past by certain social groups.