Episode 91: The Past, Present and Future of Nostalgia

State of the Theory

This is Episode 91 of the State of the Theory Podcast. Politics. Power. Popular Culture. And other stuff, probably. In this series, we’re like super nerdy philosophical DJs: mashing up Serious Academic Questions with the most topical news and trends in pop culture. Each week, we’ll tackle a new topic and collide it with ‘critical theory’ (we’re pretty loose with our definitions, though, so expect the unexpected). Our aim is to destroy the stuff we know, explore the stuff we don’t and unsettle everything we think we know about the world. We take the obvious, the commonsensical, the certain, and then we rip it all to shreds. We are your theory doctors and we are always on call. This week we talk about the experience of watching old movies during lockdown, and the nostalgia industry that has been built around these emotions. We talk about Disney+, “Home Alone”, “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” and “The Princess Bride” among others. What relationship between the past, present and future does nostalgia help to construct and how does popular culture help inscribe these relationships? The Susan Sontag essay Notes on “Camp” can be found here: https://monoskop.org/images/5/59/Sontag_Susan_1964_Notes_on_Camp.pdf State of the Theory is brought to you by Hannah Fitzpatrick (@drhfitz) and Anindya Raychaudhuri (@DrAnindyaR) Find us on Facebook (www.facebook.com/stateofthetheorypodcast) or Tweet us @TheoryDoctors