| This dissertation examines the impact and role of mass media and technology in Edgar Reitz's film of epic proportions Heimat, an aspect that has yet received little attention in research. The scenes depicting mass media and technology are the most complex and sophisticated scenes in Heimat. They are shot/narrated through a self-reflective frame, which is analyzed in depth in this study. The analysis shifts the perspective of Heimat-scholarship towards the abundant self-reflective mass media/technology scenes, revealing Reitz's critical discourse and challenging the validity of those interpretations that claim that Reitz employs in his Heimat the film aesthetics of illusionist realism/naturalism. The study traces the change of a rural community from a traditional to a global village. It analyses key moments in the development towards a modern virtual society that is characterized by its members' dependence on technological programming. By drawing on Wittgenstein's/Winner's theory of the life-form (Lebensform) I investigate Reitz's critical portrayal of the human condition within a given technological form of life. Each chapter of the study examines the rise and impact of a different technological life-form (journalistic, photographic, radio-telephonic, and cinematic), in which humans are gradually subjected to an overwhelming control through technology and shaped significantly by technological imperatives. I show that Reitz's self-reflective narrative techniques draw attention to the blindness of a technology-dominated society toward moral issues and those communal interactions that make life worth living. The analysis of Reitz's critical discourse demonstrates that the director's self-inquiry initiates a process of self-reflection on the part of the audience with a common goal in mind: the emancipation from dogmatic reliance on technology and its various incarnations. This study provides a springboard to a serious examination of applied science toward an increased awareness of complex technological processes. Many of these are, despite their destructive impact on human consciousness, culture, and society, all too often tacitly accepted as an inevitable part of technocratic reality. |
