Nostalgia and Memory Flashcards
According to Hobsbawm, the past is a model for what?
As a “model for reconstructing [the unsatisfactoy nature of the present] in a satisfactory form” 1997
What does Hobsbawm note about politcal movement and people worldwide?
That both groups tend to define Utopia as nostalgia
How can postmodernism be characterised?
1) Fragmantation, alienation, insecurity or the fleeting nature of contemporary experience
2) The blurring of the boundaries between reality and fiction (as outlined by Baudrillard)
3) The collapse of time and space, as history is no longer experienced as linear or a progression, but rather as singular events without context
4) Culture is intensified by the media and a thriving consumer context
How is the past seen as part of contemporary culture?
Nostalgia is embedded in the fabric of postmodern culture
What are potential reasons that nostalgia is thought to be embedded in the fabric of postmodern culture?
1) One theory is that it correlates to the collapse of the grand narratives
2) The invalidation or irrelevance of modern institutions once held in high regard, such as the monarchy, church or state
3) The past is a highly marketable entity, which leads to the exploitation of this fact by corporations
4) Acceleration of media and technology
Which level of simulation does Baudrillard view nostalgia as?
The third order - relating to the masking of the absence of a profound reality
What are some of the characteristics of nostalgia as a simulation?
1) Mediation of the past occurs. There is some slight reference to ‘the real’ but this is only through simulation
2) Historical signifiers can be found, but they are without any real reference (Tranquility - a North East simulation of the Wild West, obviously there are no real references within this)
3) The heritage industry presenting the past as a simulated experience. This can be tied to hyperreality, as it represents a world that does not have any real origin
4) Leads to the consumption of historical signs rather than learning or connecting to real history
How does Baudrillard view simulacra?
As being inspired by the real/an original, but creating and sustaining their own realities
What are historical simulacra?
Places that are supposed to represent the past that can be visited by people who want to ‘experience’ life in previous times. They can include tours, exhibitions, or shops containing goods that may be reproductions of goods at the time, or be of associated themes. There is also a belief that the consumption of images and products of this nature invoke a sense of historical memory. This memory could be ‘real’ or constructed, but would have equivocal meaning in the mind of the consumer
What is cultural schizophrenia?
A term that Jameson coined to describe the phenomenon of postmodern individuals being unable to engage with a linear temporality (perception of the past, present and future), instead experiencing a perpetual present.
What is the consequence of cultural schizophrenia?
Individuals are no longer able to relate to history in any other way than as a series of outmoded styles.
In the media-saturated world, history becomes what?
A sort of phantasy
What is Frederic Jameson’s definition of phantasy, in historical terms?
He sees history as being a construct, based on a series of mediated images from the past. These images are idealised, nostalgic and superficial, resulting in the fetishiised replacement of history
What is a good quote for Jameson’s view of history as phantasy?
“Our historical situation is one mediated by images”
What is a quote from Jameson to describe historicism?
“The random cannibalization of all the styles of the past, the play of random stylistic allusion”
In other words, the accumulation of different historical styles in order to symbolise and signify the past
What is Jameson’s key point on historicism?
That the postmodern individual doesn’t have a longing for an authentic past, and that the idea of historical style takes precedence over history itself.
What is evidence of the demand for the past?
Viewing figures for documentaries, re-enactments and lists of nostalgic events
The sales figures for antiques and memorabilia
Number of visitors to heritage sites and historical attractions
The proliferation of retro communities on the internet