COMPLIT 132A: Nostalgia as a Global Form

Course Description

The course will explore the waves of nostalgia that have swept the globe in the past decades. We will look at contemporary expressions of nostalgia across different media, including literature, cinema, art, spoken word, street art and social media. We will examine nostalgic narratives related to a variety of cultural phenomena such as exile, migration, colonialism, globalization and technological advancements. We will focus on case studies from various countries such as Israel, the former Soviet Union, India and the UK, and explore them in their specific cultural context, while also exploring nostalgia as a global trend of Late Modernity. Our readings will be accompanied by fundamental theoretical texts on nostalgia, including writings by Svetlana Boym, Fred Davis, Zygmunt Bauman and others.