Stasiland my summary and analysis -

1. Stasiland � my summary and analysis - This is a PowerPoint presentation and I'm going to read it out to you word for word just like you should not do because it is boring but too bad you need to know this stuff hope it helps no grammar or punctuation or spell check

2. Berlin, Winter 1996 Descriptive like a narrative Journalistic connotations Observational style Funder as a character Metaphors, senses, symbolism, imagery

3. Funder�s book starts off with her aptly named chapter Berlin, winter 1996, the title already delivering a twist of journalism, with its informative connotations, or reporting style that would soon be merged with her narration. Funder takes the reader directly into her observational style as she watches others at the station, observes and describes her surroundings and the individuals she notices, through descriptions which touch the senses (the smell of disinfectant), and she confronts the reader with the honesty of a journalist who isn�t afraid to notice the dirty things such as urine, vomit or tampons.

4. Funder instills herself as a character in what would otherwise be a non fiction piece, a collaboration of interviews and the like, but instead it is Funder who narrates with her own thoughts and observations, and as a result her own judgments. Her style immediately captures the colours and tones of the station and Berlin, which will continue to feed her feelings and views throughout the book. She begins with a rancid journey through the station in which the reader feels nauseas and into the cold of east Germany, thus symbolizing the regime that is done but still freezing its victims and the future of the country.

5. Should it be noticed that at the start of the book she is observing all of the negative aspects of the grey city and she ends with observing sunbathers and children that she �had never noticed were there�. Does this twist in her structure suggest a new day, or a new perspective for herself? That she has changed, that she has brought the plight of east Germany into the light and now they can grow and be free and happy?

6. Funder as the central character, narrates her alcohol binges as she invites an honesty but also a feeling of coping with the seedy characters she meets. She is making the reader feel her discomfort and trouble going through such an awful journey.

7. It is here on the train to meet Miriam that Funder introduces us to her style. She writes in the present tense as we travel with her and view things through her senses. We experience things with her, and ride her thoughts but then she also mixes in journalistic expositions as her non-fiction histories and thoughts fill us in about the stasi. She goes into the past tense as she delivers monologues about east Germany, often focusing on the irony, using humour and also brutal honesty to make us aware of the terrible nature of the state.

8. Often her sentences shrink to short and sharp statements, much like a journalist taking notes seeming more informative in contrast to writing flowing prose when she is describing the characters she meets.

9. In chapter 2 Funder describes how she came to begin the process of exposing the world of the stasi. She worked for a west Berlin television network answering letters from viewers under her bosses Alexander Scheller and uwe Schmidt. A viewer has responded to a show on the puzzle women and funder suggests they might do some stories on east Germans who stood up to the regime. Scheller dismisses this idea saying that she wont find the story of human courage she is looking for, this bringing up that they are not interested in learning about what happened. But the viewer replies again and tells funder that history is made of human stories � we are then juxtaposed into the train again and back to the present tense.

10. Funder meets Miriam and over the following chapters details her story. � Funder takes the reader from the reporting of Miriam and Charlie and back into the life of Anna the character. It is here that we meet Julia � her landlord. Funder, unable to get Miriam�s story out of her head advertises for ex stasi officials to be interviewed. The next chapter, funder exposes the reader to the other side of the story � the actual stasi officers and collaborators as she journeys towards the stasi headquarters. She exposits with anecdotes of their control methods, often with humour and irony, the history of the fall of the state. She discusses the state security minister � mielki and leads us through the stasi headquarters where she gets Frau Paul�s phone number and past the old paraphernalia of the stasi. The symbolically named chapter the smell of old men is significant for more than one reason, with funder being a young journalist in a world of males.

11. The chapter �telephone calls� brings Miriam back into the story, introduces Klaus the Mick jagger of the eastern bloc, and introduces herr winz. Winz is described with allusions to old spy films with his signals such as newspaper under his arm. His dialogue is reminiscent of officialdom with his short sharp sentences. He obviously is clinging to the past. Here, funder�s style twists to observational as she puts us into her shoes as we arrive at the church, grey clouds and cold as she meets Winz. The passages are littered with dog metaphors and similes, imagery that characterizes the old-time socialist. Structurally this meeting proceeds the smell of old men, which foreshadowed the now useless ex stasi.

12. We are watching a young woman entering a mans world. The conversation polarizes the differences between the two characters and emphasizes the old fashioned socialist who is trapped in a world of covert operations, spies and distrust. What happens when your life�s work becomes irrelevant? Funder exposes us to more forgotten parts of east Germany � winz worked for stasi in counter espionage. Although Winz is a humorous character, who acts as if the stasi still exists, we begin to see that some of the stasi believed very strongly in the ideals of socialism. We begin to wonder if he is really an idealist or is an insignificant old man who is delusional and desperate enough to think that another revolution is coming and the capitalists will be conquered. Herr Winz, with the rest of the insiderkommittee wont accept that it is all done and wont move on. The chapter ends as it started, with Miriam, although Anna can�t contact her. It is a juxtaposition from the obsessed ex stasi man who has links to the SED and the party of democratic socialism that harass people in all sorts of ways (as is exposited by Funder), to the woman whose life ended when her husband was killed.

13. Chapter 9 opens with Funder describing and observing, this time it is the post-wall world outside her house. She finds Julia at her house, the woman who funder shares similarities with. Funder breaks from the present tense to the past as she details the history of Julia, almost adopting a biographical style as she chronologically explores her life. The next couple of chapters explore her and her boyfriend

14. Chapter 12 � the lipsi, sees the narrative style dramatized with a snippet of a letter that is confronting and brutal. It is hate mail and funder . The reader is engaged in the story of Anna Funder who works for the TV station answering letters, but doing her own investigations on the side. The letter provokes Uwe to give another perspective in the polyvocal narrative, this time from the ordinary German. He gives funder a lift home and mentions Hagen Koch who was on one of their programs once and von Schnitzler, the chief propagandist. Funder gets von schnitzlers number from uwe a couple of days later and explores some of his shows from �the black channel�.lipsi is colloquial for Leipzig and it seems that Funder is considering the essence of words and communication the way that inhumanity can be turned into humanity. Words and propaganda. By calling Leipzig lipsi it is an attempt to give it a sort of friendly connotation, like it is an endearing old friend that they love.

15. The following chapter funder goes to snitzlers house and the familiar style of observations, surroundings, senses and symbolism gives way to the interview. Schnitzler is characterized through the artifacts of Lenin, his manicured beard, smooth hands and his inability to smile. Funder then submits to the past tense historical, biographical style as we learn about his past. Schnitzler is painted as aggressive and angry, an angry old man. There are big brother references, allusions to both Orwell book 1984 and the TV show that was so popular in Germany. Schnitzler dismisses other people�s thoughts and is steadfast in communist beliefs and calls Murdoch a �global imperialist�. Funder focuses particularly on language here again and how Schnitzler chooses certain words.

16. The battle between Schnitzler's masculine intimidation and the feminine Australia sees funder hold her own � a strength that she must recognize through Julia and Miriam but still she is not without vulnerability as she admits to the intimidation that she feels. But funder must be honest about feelings and emotions, because in a sense what she is uncovering in the stories which are denied through embarrassment from the Germans about their past or the silence that exists amongst ex east Germans must not be silenced through her own experiences.

17. The interview with von Schnitzler is not structured exactly like an interview from a regular reporter. With funder as a character we are reading about the protagonist meeting the person von Schnitzler, not a journalist interviewing a stasi propagandist. In this aspect the thoughts and feelings of funder enable judgment �I recognize this ploy from other bullies�� funder is describing him and casting judgments, this is what turns him into someone that funder characterizes rather than someone who is simply interviewed. This is obviously because funder ventures away from non fiction into narrative and enables us to enjoy the prose and the feelings of a read � of a protagonist enduring different situations and thoughts and feelings that we can all relate to. we are with her as she tries to uncover the stasi and explore � from the context of her own biases, thoughts and experiences � the history of east Germany and those who ran it.

18. The expositions of funder tries to explain how Schnitzler was socialized � these are facts but the judgments of the character interviewing him � she relates that he was brought up after the Weimar republic and the anti fascist movement and reasons that this is how he learnt to live and breathe anti capitalism and embrace socialism.

19. Funder is without flaws � she is casting her own judgments and seems a lot of the time like an amateur journalist who remarkably manages to interview some very important players, although this only accentuates that these old stasi people, powerless and insignificant are still clinging to their past and trying to be heard still. This seems to suggest that funder, as a reporter, has uncovered something seldom explored and that is the way that east Germany simply packed up and denied its past shut up.

20. She winds up the interview with Schnitzler by shifting the tone as she nervously presents him with a gift and we feel the awkwardness, she still continues to characterize him as a frail old man whose aggression is through shouting, but weak with coughing and contradictions, as if the stasi was incompetent to begin with, contradictory and only managed to stay in power so long due to its control of people and the way they accepted such control.

21. Once again chapter 14 worse you feel intersects a passage from a victim with a perpetrator. It goes from Schnitzler to Julia again who funder invites over. Julia who says �the clearer you see the worse you feel� is described as tieresius on a bike � the woman who is compared to the prophet who was punished by the gods for revealing their secrets. This empty feeling leads funder to Klaus so she could get drunk again and escape what she was discovering. This leads to a hangover and a swim � more symbolism and metaphor.

22. Once again she goes from victim to stasi man with herr Christian. She typically describes her journey, observations and then the meeting with the man. She dies her description of his appearance and the tone is not uncomfortable like Schnitzler. The role of herr Christian seems to be for funder to show how a normal unideological man would simply sign up to the stasi when ordered. He seems to represent the normal stasi official. He nonchalantly says �It wasn�t a problem for me� and goes on to say that he thought it might give him some adventure. It is this naivety that leads us to consider that the innocent youngsters were coaxed into being a cog in the machine of the stasi � presumably an allegory for young Nazis perhaps.

23. He takes her on a tour and points out the grey buildings of the gdr, the bunkers etc. he talks about his second life � a private detective that struggles to get business like he did under the stasi. He mentions that he too was reported on when working for the stasi after having an affair. He was locked up � everything must be reported on. Even the stasi were victims of the stasi. He comes across as quite unrepentant and proud of his work. It was a job for him.

24. Chapter 16 doesn�t retreat immediately back to a victim, rather it goes into another stasi man � Hagen Koch � the dude who did the wall