The Problems with Using Nostalgia to Represent the Past - Essay Example

?The Problems with Using Nostalgia to Represent the Past Introduction Nowadays, nostalgia appears to be pervasive. People go to cinemas where nostalgic films, or movies that depict the past (e.g. American Graffiti, Titanic, The Battle of Algiers, etc.), are shown. Musical productions rekindle the music of the past decades. Nevertheless, what people feel or imagine when hearing the word ‘nostalgia’ varies considerably from its original connotation. The word ‘nostalgia’ originates from the terms ‘nostos’, which means ‘to return’, and ‘algos’, which means ‘pain’ (Trigg 2006, 53). Therefore, nostalgia has mostly been a representation of the ‘pain’ a person feels when s/he is not with his/her loved ones or away from his/her dear homeland. This essay discusses the potential problems with using nostalgia to represent the past. What is Nostalgia? The term ‘nostalgia’ plainly means ‘homesickness’ or ‘home-longing.’ In the book The Future of Nostalgia, Svetlana Boyn develops the two expressions of nostalgic sentiment, a ‘reflective nostalgia’, which “dwells in longing and loss” and a ‘restorative nostalgia’, which refers to ‘nostos’ and suggests to “rebuild the lost home” (Scott 2010, 45). It was Johannes Hofer who first used the word ‘nostalgia’ in 1688. Hofer enumerated several indications of nostalgia, namely, weakened senses, weakness, quickened heartbeat, insomnia, anxiety, sadness, etc. For Hofer, nostalgia is a physical illness caused by brain disorders (Naqvi 2007, 10). Between the 18th and 19th century nostalgia was assumed to be, to a certain extent, a psychosomatically illness brought about by internal struggles. Psychoanalytic accounts linking nostalgia to a childhood trauma and the desire to go back to the mother’s womb were widespread throughout the 20th century (Naqvi 2007, 10-11). On the other hand, counter to the disagreements on the roots of nostalgia there was strong agreement until the mid-20th century to categorise nostalgia as an illness. During this period nostalgia was specifically linked to depression. However, in the 1970s the meaning and image of nostalgia fully transformed. It was at this time that nostalgia shifted from a longing for home to a longing for time, specifically for the past. As a result, nostalgia started to be differentiated from ‘home-longing’ (Koneke 2011, 5). In addition, although nostalgia was previously interpreted from the point of view of the individual in the 1970s nostalgia turned out to be a sociological occurrence as well. Social scientists linked nostalgia to a perspective of demise in humanity, particularly a demise in morality and unity, and with a longing for peace, genuineness, and nature. This newly formed social viewpoint resulted further in the development of a new viewpoint on nostalgia, namely, a collective nostalgia (Koneke 2011, 5). Understanding the nature of nostalgia has actually been very difficult. Even though nostalgia was originally regarded to be a depressing or melancholic illness whilst it is currently rather regarded to be pleasurable, most professionals who have been looking at nostalgia have recognised that nostalgia involves favourable and unfavourable sentiments at the same time. In fact, nostalgia is largely regarded as a bittersweet feeling, a bipolar sentiment which merges pleasure with anguish, affection with pain, and happiness with sadness (Sprengler 2011, 14). Nostalgia’s bittersweet essence is largely either due to experiencing at the same time past pleasure and existing anguish, or to the problem of simultaneously longing to break away from the need to accept the present and into the past. Even though there is widespread agreement that nostalgia is a bittersweet emotion there is a certain debate, whether the happy or the melancholic aspects dominate. A number of scholars, particularly psychoanalysts, have deduced from case narratives that the central features of nostalgia are disillusionment, anxiety, and grief (Koneke 2011, 5-6). To sum up the problematic aspects of nostalgia, nostalgia is considered as detrimental and a weakness because it is alleged to be associated with depression and low self-worth and to avoid dealing with the present. Nostalgia in Films George Lucas’s American Graffiti, according to Fredric Jameson, is the first nostalgia film. As stated by Jameson, movies that represent the past accomplish this by means of stereotypes and presumptions instead of focusing on history in a valuable and purposeful manner. He claims that nostalgia aesthetic styles (e.g. parody, irony) and nostalgia films replace ‘genuine’ history with the history of visual modes (Sprengler 2011, 87). For instance, American Graffiti simply fill the present with the tone of the ‘past’ but do not really focus on the historical facts of these periods. Rather, the film merely induce a feeling of what Jameson calls ‘1950s-ness’ through the cultures and lifestyles of this period, through ‘deliberate archaism’—“describes the practice of creating new-old films which mine the memories of media forms and strive to recreate not only the look and feel of the period in question but also the appearance of art from that distant time” (Sprengler 2011, 140)-- and ‘surface realism’--- “produced through the use of period markers such as dress, cars and setting and is indicative of the obsession with period details characteristic of all nostalgic art” (Turner 1993, 86). Jameson criticises the aesthetic styles of postmodernism for they are profoundly involved in consumer capitalism and have been successful in displacing modernist art forms that previously granted its audiences a link to the past. Basically, nostalgia does not give a way into the issues revolving around the nature and purpose of historical investigation and into history itself. As a result, interpretations, such as the analysis of Martin Hunt on the films of Terence Davies, which assign historiographic or epistemological value to cinematic or graphic accounts of the past, are hesitant to classify representations as a form of nostalgia (Sprengler 2011, 87-88). Furthermore, Jameson mentions the adoption of traditional movie narratives in nostalgia films, with Raiders of the Lost Ark and Double Indemnity adapted from the 1940s’ adventure series, and Body Heat adapted from The Postman Always Rings Twice (Sprengler 2011, 88). Due to the intangible and detailed/cinematic referencing of these traditional movie narratives, though, Jameson argues that the nostalgia film “tells us stories that are no longer our own” (Dika 2003, 10). Such films evoke a form of ‘schizophrenia’ in the postmodern world. He further argues that nostalgia films are not “a matter of some old fashioned ‘representation’ of historical content, but instead approached the ‘past’ through stylistic connotation conveying ‘pastness’ by the glossy qualities of the image, and ‘1930s-ness’ or ‘1950s-ness’ by the attributes of fashion” (Eschen 2008, 14). Simply, nostalgia in postmodern movies can be a weak depiction of a specific historical reality or period. Nostalgia films are different from previous genre tradition because their application of general practices is usually incomplete, and in numerous instances disconnected. Because of this nostalgia films cannot be regarded as new patterns of earlier genres in the customary way. They are re-creations of outdated or extinct types, genres that came back after a phase of demise or nonexistence (Hughes-Warrington 2007). Nostalgia films are hence more correctly viewed as ‘replicas’ whose originals are usually unheard of or forgotten. This return thus strengthens Jameson’s concept of ‘schizophrenia’, and the suggested obstacle to history and to reality built by a persistent imitation (Jacobs 2009, 69). Therefore, what develops afterward is a new form of profit-oriented representation that puts films on a unique narrative and cinematic form. Jameson associates nostalgia films with a time of vanished desire in the 1950s via the expression of capitalism, that is, the “the past is commodified, repackaged, and sold back” (Jacobs 2009, 69) to the people via the film’s plot or narrative and via the numerous collaborative methods that market the symbolism, outlooks, fashion modes, music, and other representations that go with the film. The schizophrenia or displacement, cultivated by the introspective attitude, can limit an audience or character in the confines of their current condition. Nostalgia might not be “an altogether satisfactory word for [audiences’] fascination” (Wierzbicki 2009, 219) with elements of a fictional or an actual past. However, the concept of ‘nostalgia’ “directs our attention to what is a culturally far more generalised manifestation of the process in commercial art and taste,” (Wierzbicki 2009, 219) a mechanism whereby “the whole issue of pastiche” is redesigned and presented “onto a collective and social level, where the desperate attempt to appropriate a missing past is now refracted through the iron law of fashion change and the emergent ideology of the generation” (Wierzbicki 2009, 219). Fundamentally, the problem with the use of nostalgia to represent the past is that it prevents audiences from valuing or focusing on their current situation, as if they have become unable to attain visual representations of their own present realities. Hence, nostalgia films are quite detached from the films dealing with contemporary social issues that critics had highly regarded in the 1970s. Unsurprisingly, for Jameson, the nostalgia film is “a terrible indictment of consumer capitalism itself—or, at the very least, an alarming and pathological symptom of a society that has become incapable of dealing with time and history” (Belton 1996, 193). An equally critical point of view has directed current disapproval of the ‘heritage film’, a film style that has been classified by film scholars as ‘nostalgic’. The heritage film, usually derived from popular literary creations (e.g. A Room with a View, Howards End) and distinguished by devotedly emphasised period features and sizeable production costs, has been disparaged for its “artful and spectacular projection of an elite, conservative vision of the national past” (Monk & Sargeant 2002, 180) and for its pleasant display related to nostalgia for an imagined image of a vanished Englishness. In an analysis indicative of Jameson’s argument, Andrew Higson has argued that even in cases where the plot of a heritage film may suggest a cynical, incongruous interpretation of the national past, the strength or influence of its interpretation is weakened by the film’s obsessive display that commodifies its representation or rendition of that past, making it a lavish facade to be gratifyingly consumed (Monk & Sargeant 2002, 180). The argument that what the heritage firm communicates is cultural memory may be proven by emphasising its resemblances to other forms of nostalgia film. Heritage films are “typically slow moving and episodic, avoiding the efficient and economic causal development of the classical film. The concern for character, place, atmosphere and milieu tends to be more pronounced than dramatic, goal-directed action” (Radstone & Schwarz 2010, 331). Essentially, nostalgia disinfects historical realities, making them undisruptive and safe, in order to make them saleable. Indeed, nostalgia stirs up a feeling of ambiguity of the past. Hence, nostalgia functions in twofold, specifically: it represents and brings back specific forms of depicting the past (Radstone & Schwarz 2010, 331). Yet, nostalgia does not try to represent or bring back the ‘actual’ past but is focused on several stereotypes and cultural falsehoods about the past. By itself, nostalgia creates a ‘false realism.’ As defined by Jameson, ‘false realism’ is a state “in which the history of aesthetic styles displaces ‘real’ history” (Storey 2010, 62). Thereby, nostalgia wipes out the ‘real’ past or historical realities by means of its “random cannibalisation of all the styles of the past, the play of random stylistic allusion” (Storey 2010, 62). The inability of nostalgia to represent history is evidently linked to Jameson’s ‘cultural schizophrenia.’ The term ‘cultural schizophrenia’ is derived by Jameson from psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan to suggest a language difficulty, a dysfunction of the temporal connection between manifestations (Wagner & MacLean 2008, 97). The use of nostalgia to represent the past is distinguished by a cultural schizophrenia that deals with time not as continuity but as an unending present which is simply infrequently defined by the interruption of the prospect of a future or the past. The benefit of the decline of traditional individuality, the sense of identity as constantly situated within a temporal continuity, is a strengthened feel of the present. Therefore, nostalgic films have been suffering from a vanished sense of history or reality and their perspective of the future distinct from the present. Per se, nostalgia may be labelled as ‘historical amnesia’ (Landy 2001, 218), according to Jameson, confined in the broken current of an unending present. The problem of using nostalgia to represent the past may be explained more clearly by analysing a specific example, which is, for the purposes of this essay, Camus’s The Holy Innocents (1984). The movie is situated in 1984, yet the story progresses through the depictions of the memories of the family members. This story talks about incidents during the 1960s at which the members of the family are workers. The movie narrates the maltreatment and oppression of the family of labourers and ends in the killing of the landlord by Azarias, a mentally disabled family member, and a holy innocent (Fowler & Helfield 2006, 41). At the outset, the movie exhibits a nostalgic reaction via the representation of urban and rural in the preliminary part. In the movie’s opening, visual gratification is given to the audience by the vividness of the portrayal of rural space, yet in all the other parts of the movie, a closer look at the cinematic style shows a steady focus on pictographic aesthetics. The plentiful scenery images bring to mind artistic renditions of the rural space, and the insides are lovingly illuminated, applying, once more, an artistic shade. Hence, the problem with the film’s use of nostalgia is the disconnectedness between the story of oppression and poverty and the pictographic aesthetics. This is exactly a ‘cultural schizophrenia’ problem. As stated by film scholar John Hopewell, “The film portrays a family living in squalor, but its polished camera-work creates an effect of picturesque poverty” (Fowler & Helfield 2006, 41). Such inconsistencies of The Holy Innocents embody the issue of problematic nostalgia. For example, in a preliminary part the audiences are gratified with images of an eagle flying against a blue sky; this clearly looks like a traditional depiction of an enjoyable rural environment. The audience is afterward surprised as the image stops to show Azarias peeing on his hands (Fowler & Helfield 2006, 41-42), creating an image that could bring into play a rebellious mockery of a traditional rural setting. A further instance of awkward disconnection is the agonising effort of Pact to use his newly fractured leg at the command of Ivan, the landlord. This scene of painful woe is enclosed by cinematically pleasing scenery images (Fowler & Helfield 2006, 42-43). The obvious and harsh contradiction between the anguish depicted in the story and the delight stirred up by the cinematic portrayal of the environment proves especially disconcerting. The use of nostalgia at this point, instead of bringing about a sense of pleasure or happiness, causes disorientation. The manner the movie moves back and forth between political criticism and nostalgic indication is severe as well in the depiction of the relationship between animal and human beings. If such is portrayed in a picturesque manner when Azarias “runs with the tawny owl” (Fowler & Helfield 2006, 43), and in the following shots wherein he showers his ‘pretty kite’ with love, in all the other parts of the movie the relationship is much more disorienting. The dehumanisation of human beings concludes in the scene wherein Paco, who tolerates the inhumane approach of Ivan towards him, tries to imitate a dog to find the lost hunted bird (Fowler & Helfield 2006, 43). Normally, this disturbing scene occurs in a graphically gratifying and adoringly depicted rural environment. Thus, as shown in the discussion and in the analysis of the The Holy Innocents, the problem of using nostalgia to represent the past largely rests on the rejection of the ‘grand narrative’, or a conceptual model that is thought to be a full description and clarification of historical realities, knowledge, and experience. Conclusions The growth of nostalgia should be understood with regard to a collection of aspects. One should consider the deliberate consumption of ‘nostalgia’ within certain markets, but one should take into account as well the importance of technological developments and their capacity to revive, reprocess, and re-create the past in the cinematic and cultural landscape. Technological advances, such as video innovations have, on the whole, changed people’s capacity to experience, communicate, and consume nostalgia. The overabundance of information nowadays, made easy by information technologies, has a remarkable effect on people’s connection with the past and their feeling of nostalgia (Hughes-Warrington 2007). Thus, if nostalgia is a problematic tool to represent the past, one should take account of the cultural effects of technological developments that facilitate the recovery of musics, forms, narratives, and scenes obtained from the past. In explaining the weaknesses of nostalgia as a tool for representing the past, this essay argues that it is important to reconcile the aspects of loss and forgetfulness. This requires a specific form of examination that will neither discount the growth of nostalgia since it is confined to particular patterns of textuality and preference, nor take too lightly the ability of lavishly depicted nostalgia to create purposeful and valuable representations of the past. Additional focus has to be placed on the origin, growth, and role of specific nostalgia styles. The essential argument of this essay is that nostalgia stypes do not arise from, or manifest, nostalgia emotions. If nostalgia has grown as a cinematic tool in the contemporary period, it cannot be justified by means of any grand narrative of loss, longing, or conflict. This does not imply that nostalgia forms have not grown in the framework of conflict, or that loss and longing are not effective and working narratives within particular forms of dialogue (Baudrillard 1994, 139). Rather, this essay would like to propose a model that opposes a disparaging analysis where nostalgia styles become the natural outcome of disappointments, frustrations, and discontentments with the present. The commodification of nostalgia has surfaced in a cultural period capable of acquiring, communicating, and re-creating the realities of the past in novel and forceful means, that has engaged nostalgia in certain preference and symbolic arena, and that has largely distanced nostalgia from certain representations or values situated in the past. Instead of proposing a forgetful culture rooted in cleansed memory, this essay wants to suggest that the rise of nostalgic styles, consumers, forms, and models may in fact reveal a new sort of involvement in or commitment with the past, a connection rooted essentially in its narrative re-creation and cultural intervention in the present. References Baudrillard, J. (1994) Simulacra and Simulation. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press. Belton, J. (1996) Movies and Mass Culture. London: Continuum International Publishing Group. Dika, V. (2003) Recycled Culture in Contemporary Art and Film: The Uses of Nostalgia. 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