Monochrome Memories: Nostalgia and Style in Retro America

Through a series of engaging and interlinked case studies on the news magazine, Hollywood film, brand advertising, and movie colorization, this volume examines the resurgence of the black and white image in the 1990s. At a time when American culture was undergoing both diversification and demystification, the black and white image became the expression of nostalgia as a cultural style and was strategically used in the media to visualize a sense of American memory, heritage, and identity. Challenging the current definition of nostalgia as a mood connected to longing and loss, the author presents it as a cultural mode that commodifies and aestheticizes memory. By examining the politics of stylized nostalgia, this volume provides new insight into the construction, representation, and preservation of American national memory at the turn of the 20th century.