Paper Summary:

This paper discusses the restorative and reflective function of nostalgia, which are two differing aspects of memory within culture as depicted in Svetlana Boym's book "The Future of Nostalgia". The author points out that restorative nostalgia appears to be a conspiracy that reconstructs the past by making it appear clean and untainted by time. The paper relates that the collective memory of reflective nostalgia tends to put a humorous spin on the past by reflecting a snippet of time from a past event.

From the Paper:

"This study analyzes two critical points on nostalgia that arise within the book: The Future of Nostalgia by Svetlana Boym. By understanding what is called "restorative" and "reflective" nostalgia, one can learn the various aspects of memory that play into remembering and reinventing cultural depictions of familiar ideas and stereotypes in society. In Chapter 4 of Boym's analysis on nostalgia, he reflects on the concepts of normative social structure that have created stereotypical perceptions of ideas and cultural traditions. Within these writings Boym reflects on how there is a conspiracy to hark back to the `origins' of the past and the idea of a return to idealized times."

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