Description
Book SynopsisNostalgia, they say, is not what it used to be. Once a witticism, this statement about the past has come to pass. Nostalgia
really isn’t what it used to be. Less than a generation ago, it was regarded as reactionary, as regressive, as reprehensible. Now, it is considered conducive to health, wealth, and human wellbeing. It is something that helps sell products and move merchandise, an underexploited critical resource with emancipatory potential.
Nowhere is this transformation better illustrated than in the neo-burlesque community, whose members not only embrace the art-form’s golden age, and happily acquire heritage goods and vintage services, but turn their nostalgic leanings to emancipatory effect. They are retro revolutionaries, feather boa-wearing insurgents who find women’s liberation in sequins and stilettos.
This book shines a spotlight on weapons-grade nostalgia, indicating how it is integral to insurrections throughout history, be they political, technological, or cultural. It reveals, through a combination of empirical ethnographic research and revolutionary literary criticism, the part nostalgia plays in a subversive consumer collective that uses fans, fishnets, and frivolity to fight for the right to party against patriarchy and find a fourth-wave form of female emancipation that foregoes old-school feminist fault-finding for good old-fashioned fun, fun, fun.
Trade ReviewThe authors examine the idea of revolutionary nostalgia through neo-burlesque in France, Britain, the US, and elsewhere, and its rebellious feminism, as well as its context of consumer culture. They discuss the concepts of nostalgia, retro, and revolutionaries and insurgents; the rise, fall, and return of burlesque and its current revolutionary intentions; and conceptualizing neo-burlesque, nostalgia, and retro marketing in general. -- Annotation ©2018 * (protoview.com) *
This book provides a compelling overview and exploration into nostalgia, burlesque, and retro culture. The rich ethnography serves to provide a deeply textured portrait of revolutionary nostalgia in action, whilst the authors admirably navigate the theoretical terrain with gusto and aplomb, which makes the arguments resonate and linger with the reader.
Katherine Duffy, University of Glasgow, in Cultural Sociology, 2020Table of ContentsList of Figures Preface: Retromania in Retrospect Chapter 1. Introduction: Welcome to Wonderland Section I: Past and Present Chapter 2. Borne Back Ceaselessly Chapter 3. Wheel Meet Again Chapter 4. Come the Revolution Section II: Focus and Findings Chapter 5. Burlesque in Brief Chapter 6. Considering Consumer Culture Chapter 7. Fans of Freedom Section III: Context and Concepts Chapter 8. Ghost Dance Stance Chapter 9. Retro Rising Redux Chapter 10. Dancing is Life Chapter 11. Conclusion: At the Hop Appendix I: Definitions of Nostalgia Appendix II: List of Informants
