Since I'm leading discussion tomorrow (I think!) i'm saving my most insightful questions for discussion. However, I was struck while reading the first Goss piece for this week. Malls, he argues, are developer's representation of a time and place rooted in nostalgia. By incorporating the trappings of traditional civic spaces, places to meet, linger, and converse with others, in a setting recreating nature, shoppers feel transported to another place in time. As a result, they can justify their consumption behavior, which Goss argues goes against Americans' Puritanical upbringing.
My question arises from analysis of the current generation of consumers who have grown up in a society inundated by malls. Malls have been the substitute for civic spaces for as long as people my age and younger have been alive. As a result, I wonder whether this age cohort truly experiences the nostalgia Goss proposes. Or possibly more interesting, how can we feel nostalgia for something we've never truly experienced? If we do feel nostalgia is it generated by social conceptions, possibly through the use of the trappings of the old town square, and media representations of this previous time period? Or has this age cohort confused civic space with commercial space to the point that the two are one in the same?
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3 comments:
Good questions. I think the answer to the first two is that the nostalgia we feel is largely mediated. But the authenticity and sense of historical space invoked with nostalgic appeals still holds tremendous power with a generation that has little experience with either. For the last question, I'd bring Lizbeth Cohen to bear, as she describes how consumerism empowers; by shopping we are experiencing a sense of control over our lives and environment. But I'd add to that the sense of public space as a reflective one, in that we see ourselves reflected in those around us.
hmm... perhaps I've meandered too much. better go eat another donut.
Good questions. I think the answer to the first two is that the nostalgia we feel is largely mediated. But the authenticity and sense of historical space invoked with nostalgic appeals still holds tremendous power with a generation that has little experience with either. For the last question, I'd bring Lizbeth Cohen to bear, as she describes how consumerism empowers; by shopping we are experiencing a sense of control over our lives and environment. But I'd add to that the sense of public space as a reflective one, in that we see ourselves reflected in those around us.
hmm... perhaps I've meandered too much. better go eat another donut.
When I was in L.A., I often went to shopping malls because my wife, who was at that time my girlfriend, enjoyed window shopping.^^ Among the malls, "The Grove" is exactly what Gross tries to analyze. The mall is like a big, old station; actually, a tramp circulates in the mall. There is an old type clock. In addition, they have a farmer's market in the mall. I think that the mall increases a liminal experience. However, as Mark points out, how can we experience a nostalgia which is from the era we have never experienced? I think that one of the main causes is media. Media make frames of old time experience by various contents and genres.
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