Television, memory, and nostalgia

About this book

Often characterised by its 'transience' and 'ephemerality', and even more seriously, seen as an 'amnesiac', television's relationship with both memory and nostalgia has long been neglected and ignored. An innovative and original new study, Television, Memory and Nostalgia re-imagines the relationship between the medium and its forms of memory and remembrance through a series of case studies of British and North American programmes and practices. These include the role of memory in serial dramas ER, Grey's Anatomy and The Wire, an investigation of the family history format Who Do You Think You Are?, forms of nostalgia television including the US and UK versions of Life on Mars, and a study of television's material cultures in both the home and the museum. Offering new conceptual and analytical insights into television, the book considers not only the role of television in the constitution of contemporary memory cultures, but the role of memory and nostalgia in the operation of specific television cultures as well.