Course description
British historian Eric Hobsbawm once wrote, "Memory is life. It is always carried by groups of living people, and therefore, it is in permanent evolution." Memory is neither constant nor stable. Hobsbawm also observed, "As one would expect of tourists, they tried to find poverty colourful," suggesting that the same past appears different depending on the perspective from which we view it. Nostalgia, a form of both personal and collective memory, is a longing for a bygone time or lost home. In this course, we will explore the psychological and ideological functions of nostalgia as a form of memory, focusing on a hybrid genre known as nostalgia film.
As Hobsbawm notes, memory is unreliable because it is subject to change and coloured by subjectivity. However, it remains more authentic than nostalgia, which is largely a product of imagination or fantasy. Nostalgia, imbued with sentimentality, can be seen as psychologically regressive, while nostalgia that idealises the past can be viewed as ideologically reactionary. Whether regressive or reactionary, nostalgia undeniably serves as a way of coming to terms with the past and as a vehicle for individuals, societies, and nations to move forward. Yet, nostalgia is also an unfulfilled desire, as the idealised past or home can never be fully reclaimed. The past can be recreated, but no one can relive it.
Since the phenomenal success of American Graffiti (1974), there has been a notable rise in the production of nostalgia films, which American literary and cultural critic Fredric Jameson has termed "postmodern nostalgia films." According to Jameson, these films commodify history by reducing it to mere visual spectacle for consumption. Left-wing critics and film historians are often critical of nostalgia films because they dehistoricise history. One of our tasks in this course will be to examine whether nostalgia indeed represents a form of dehistoricisation, in contrast to historical dramas and memory films.
Nostalgia is a universal sentiment, and nostalgia films have been produced worldwide. However, the specific historical periods filmmakers tend to romanticise vary from nation to nation. For instance, American nostalgia films frequently revisit the Eisenhower era; British heritage films idealise the Edwardian period; French costume dramas focus on the Third Republic; Italian historical films evoke the fascist era; contemporary German films often recall the DDR; post-Cultural Revolution Chinese cinema harks back to the Cultural Revolution itself; Taiwanese New Cinema reflects on the time of Martial Law; and Japanese nostalgia films often revisit the postwar Showa period, from 1952 through the 1960s. Our separate task is to investigate why a certain historical time evokes strong nostalgia for filmmakers and film audiences in such nations or a region.

Expected learning outcomes
Students are expected to engage with seminal literature on nostalgia, gaining a comprehensive understanding of its psychological and ideological dimensions. Through reading, discussion, and debate in class, students will explore nostalgia as both a form of memory and a sentiment, while also critically examining how it differs from history and other forms of memory. This exploration aims to deepen students' understanding of the core dynamics involved in the act of remembrance. Alongside theoretical study, students will individually or collectively view a diverse selection of nostalgia films from around the world. By conducting independent or group research on the historical contexts of the films, participating in class presentations, and engaging in discussions, students will gain insight into the significance of specific historical periods for the cinema of various nations or regions.

Teaching and evaluation methods
This course combines lectures with seminars that feature student presentations and class discussions. Film screenings may be organized and open to VIU students and staff or films will be watched individually or in groups online. Assessment will be based on attendance, completion of reading assignments, presentations, participation in seminar discussions, and written assignments.

Filmography
Wolfgang Becker, Good Bye Lenin!, 2003
Claude Beri, Jean de Florette, 1986
Bernardo Bertolucci, The Conformist, 1970
Todd Haynes, Far from Heaven, 2002
James Ivory, Maurice, 1987
Hous Hsiao-hsien, Dust in the Wind, 1987
George Lucas, American Graffiti, 1973
Takashi Yamazaki, Always: The Sunset on the Third Street, 2005
Zhang Yimou, The Road Home, 1999

Essential reading
Becker, Tobias and Trigg, Dylan. Part Two of The Routledge Handbook of Nostalgia. London and New York: Routledge. 2024.
Cook, Pam. 2004. Screening the Past: Memory and Nostalgia in Cinema. London and New York: Routledge.
Jameson, Fredric. 1992. ‘Nostalgia for the Present’. In Postmodernism, or, The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Leggatt, Matthew. 2021. Was It Yesterday?: Nostalgia in Contemporary Film and TV. Albany, NY.
Springler, Christine. Screening Nostalgia: Populuxe Props and Technicolor Aesthetics.

Reference

Barney, Timothy. 2009. ‘When We Was Red: Good Bye Lenin! and Nostalgia for the “Everyday GDR”. Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, Vol. 6, Issue 2.
Chen, Ming-may Jessie and Haque, Mazharul. 2007. Representation of the Cultural Revolution in Chinese Films by the Fifth Generation Filmmakers: Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, and Tian Zhuangzhuang. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press.
Dwyer, Michael D. 2015. Back to the Fifties: Nostalgia, Hollywood Film and Popular Music of the Seventies and Eighties. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Higson, Andrew. 2003. English Heritage, English Cinema: Costume Drama since 1980. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Lichtner, Giacomo. 2015. Italian Cinema and the Fascist Past: Tracing Memory Amnesia. Leiden: Brill.
Powrie, Phil. 1998. French Cinema in the 1980s: Nostalgia and the Crisis of Masculinity. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
Wilson, Flannery. 2014. New Taiwanese Cinema in Focus. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.

Last updated: January 28, 2025