Multimodality of ostalgia language: A study of Instagram* accounts about the GDR

Abstract

Ostalgie, positive thinking about the former GDR, has been studied by literary theorists and critics who deal with the fiction by authors born in the GDR. The present article addresses multimodality of memoires: the language which Instagram* users speak when talking about Eastern Germany. Topic significance is justified by the continued search for self-identification by many Germans who turn to their past years. Methods used for the study include usual linguistic ones: continuous sampling, componential analysis, description, and comparison. Some of the accounts about the GDR are studied in the present article. It focuses on the comments of followers who share their experiences and minds about what they see. Emojis play important role in the expression of their feelings and opinions. There are four semantical types of comments. Two of them are a direct response to the image or authors’ descriptions (evaluation of what is seen or read), the other two are a recollection and a comparing recollection when a user compares life today to that in the GDR with the latter seeming to be better than now. The most popular lexical units used by commenters are Zeit, Heimat, friedlich, ruhig, schön, gut, vermissen reflecting the most important and positive aspects for the Eastern Germans. They include an explicit evaluation (friedlich, ruhig, schön, gut) and an implicit one (Zeit, Heimat). The word Zeit is of high significance and marks positive evaluation of the past (sehr schön das war unsere Zeit; waren keine schlechten Zeiten). These features demonstrate a positive attitude by users from the former GDR towards the past time and not towards the state itself; they evaluate not the country but their own historical experience full of positive aspects. * Meta is determined as an extremist organization in Russian Federation.