Why Should We Study Socialist Commercials?

This article looks at television’s so far neglected contribution as arelay and interpretive framework at the intersection of postsocialist memoryand history studies. It zooms in on postsocialist nostalgia as a relationalexpression of a heterogeneous set of desires that operate in anintercultural network. Televisual nostalgia also implicates Western Europeand makes explicit a Western European longing for the divided Europe of theCold War. This longing, in turn, shores up Europe’s repressed imperialhistory. Television’s role at the pressure points of postsocialistinstitutional and economic policy, consumption and narrative concerns makesit an indispensable window into the intertwined workings of nostalgia andnationalism within a postcolonial Europe.