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Revolutionary Nostalgia
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Revolutionary Nostalgia

Retromania, Neo-Burlesque, and Consumer Culture

Marie-Cécile Cervellon|Stephen Brown
Emerald
Emerald

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Paperback / softback
9781787693463
31 October 2018
$75.99
eBook (PDF)
9781787693432
31 October 2018
$56.99
eBook (ePub)
9781787693456
31 October 2018
$56.99

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Nostalgia, 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.

List 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

    The 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

    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, 2020

    Marie-Cécile Cervellon is Professor of Marketing at EDHEC Business School, France, with a teaching expertise in brand management and luxury marketing. She has published in major international journals, including MIT Sloan Management Review, Journal of Business Research, and International Journal of Research in Marketing and has been quoted in Newsweek, The Financial Times, and The New York Times among other press outlets. 
    Stephen Brown is Professor of Marketing Research at Ulster University Business School, UK. He specializes in retro branding, arts marketing and authorpreneurship. He has published in many leading Marketing journals including the Harvard Business Review, Journal of Marketing, Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Retailing and the Journal of Historical Research in Marketing. He is the winner of numerous best paper prizes, including the Hans B. Thorelli Award.