Open AccessNostalgia as a contemporary cultural phenomenon
Author(s) -
Ana Petrov
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
zbornik matice srpske za društvene nauke/zbornik matice srpske za društvene nauke
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2406-0836
pISSN - 0352-5732
DOI - 10.2298/zmsdn2073037p
Subject(s) - commodification , consumerism , phenomenon , postmodernism , aesthetics , interpretation (philosophy) , context (archaeology) , consumption (sociology) , contemporary society , style (visual arts) , sociology , state (computer science) , epistemology , art , history , literature , social science , philosophy , political science , law , linguistics , archaeology , algorithm , economics , computer science , market economy
In this article, I point to the most relevant characteristics of the discourses on nostalgia in the 20th and 21st centuries. The focus of the analysis is on the transformation of the concept of nostalgia from a mental and emotional state to a product in contemporary consumerist society. The text entails two crucial issues: nostalgia in the context of postmodernism and nostalgia in the context of consumerism. The expansion of the concept brought to an interpretation according to which nostalgia discourse in the postmodern age reproduces itself without necessary reference to a specific past, thus becoming a certain ahistorical autonomous style, which, as such, can be available for consumption independently from any emotional connection with the times and places on which the style alludes. This kind of nostalgia is labeled as ?nostalgia mode? by Frederic Jameson. The aim of the article is to point to the basic theoretical approaches to the process of commodification of the concept of nostalgia in the contemporary society. Even though there are copious typologies of nostalgia, since the end of the 20th century dealing with this phenomenon is mostly imbued in the context of consumerism. Hence, contemporary nostalgia is sometimes also seen as both consumed and consuming nostalgia.