LFTVD - INTERTEXTUALITY - CULTURAL CONTEXT

CULTURAL CONTEXT: A QUICK EXPLANATION/COMPARISON

Cultural context, by contrast to social context, refers to shared meanings, beliefs, identities, traditions, and collective memories within a society. This includes national identity, ideology, religion, history, popular culture, myths, symbols, language, and values. Cultural context is about how a society understands itself and constructs meaning through stories, rituals, and representations. In media studies, this often includes intertextuality, nostalgia, ideology, and collective memory; for example, how Cold War imagery, national history, or genre traditions shape how audiences interpret a text.

‘Long form television dramas lack originality; no matter which country they are made in, they all use intertextuality in the same way.’ How far do you agree with this statement?

Both Stranger Things and D83 use intertextuality to explore cultural contexts, revealing how national identity, ideology, and collective memory shape meaning in long-form television drama. Applying Hall’s theory of representation, we can see that both first episodes construct culturally specific worlds that rely on the audience’s shared cultural knowledge to generate meaning. In Stranger Things, the cultural context of 1980s Reagan-era America is established through intertextual references to Spielbergian suburbia, Cold War paranoia, and small-town Americana. The opening sequence in Hawkins Lab evokes a cultural memory of Cold War fear through visual echoes of secret government facilities and scientific experimentation, drawing on intertextual references to E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The use of bikes, arcades, Dungeons & Dragons, and suburban homes further constructs a nostalgic cultural identity rooted in middle-class American childhood, making the intertextuality function as a form of cultural shorthand that audiences instantly recognise. By contrast, D83 constructs a very different cultural context through its intertextual references in the first episode, grounded in Cold War division and ideological identity. The opening scenes in East Germany use muted colour palettes, uniforms, and militarised spaces to reference Cold War spy thrillers and socialist realism, but when Martin crosses into West Germany, the cultural contrast is stark: Western pop music, consumer goods, bright lighting, and capitalist excess are foregrounded. This intertextual contrast constructs a binary opposition between the cultural identity between East and West, using familiar Cold War imagery to encode ideological difference. Barthes’ theory of myth is useful here, as both texts use intertextuality to create cultural myths: Stranger Things mythologises 1980s America as innocent and nostalgic, while Deutschland 83 mythologises the Cold War as a world of ideological opposition and cultural division. Therefore, although intertextuality is present in both first episodes, it cannot be said that long-form television dramas use it “in the same way.” Instead, intertextuality functions as a culturally specific tool, shaped by national identity, historical experience, and ideological context, demonstrating that cultural context fundamentally alters how intertextual meaning is constructed and interpreted.

2026 Question: “Economic contexts are more influential on the way that programme makers use intertextuality than social, cultural or historical contexts." How far do you agree with this statement?

Although economic context exerts a powerful influence on the use of intertextuality, cultural context remains a significant shaping force in how meaning is constructed in long-form television drama. Applying Hall’s theory of representation, both Stranger Things and D83 demonstrate that intertextuality relies on shared cultural knowledge to generate meaning, showing that programme makers are not guided by economics alone. In Stranger Things, intertextual references to Spielbergian suburbia, Cold War paranoia and Reagan-era Americana function as culturally specific codes that construct a recognisable national identity. The Hawkins Lab sequence draws on cultural memories of secret government experimentation found in E.T. and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, while bikes, arcades, Dungeons & Dragons and suburban homes operate as intertextual shorthand for 1980s middle-class American childhood. These references do not simply serve commercial familiarity, but actively encode cultural memory and collective identity. By contrast, D83 constructs meaning through a different cultural framework rooted in Cold War division and ideological identity. The opening sequences in East Germany use visual references to socialist realism, militarised spaces and Cold War spy iconography, while Martin’s transition into West Germany introduces a sharp intertextual contrast through pop music, consumerism, bright lighting and capitalist excess. This binary opposition constructs culturally specific meanings about East/West identity rather than universal commercial codes. Barthes’ theory of myth is useful here, as both texts use intertextuality to naturalise cultural ideologies: Stranger Things mythologises 1980s America as innocent, nostalgic and unified, while D83 mythologises the Cold War as a world of ideological opposition and cultural division. This demonstrates that intertextuality is shaped not only by economic strategies, but also by culturally specific systems of meaning. Therefore, while economic contexts may be structurally dominant, cultural contexts significantly influence how intertextuality is selected, framed and interpreted, challenging the idea that economic factors are more influential than social, cultural or historical contexts in all cases.