Nostalgia, Religion and Popular Culture: Rethinking the Sacred and the Secular through the Death of Queen...

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Chris Deacy (University of Kent, UK)

Nostalgia, Religion and Popular Culture

Rethinking the Sacred and the Secular through the Death of Queen Elizabeth II

Chris Deacy (University of Kent, UK)

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English

Bloomsbury Academic
09 January 2025

Religion: general; Popular culture; Sociology: death & dying; Nostalgia: general

Drawing on the event of Queen Elizabeth II’s death in 2022 as a central case study, this book explores the way we navigate the relationship between nostalgia and religion.

Focusing on the lived experiences of ‘ordinary people’ and in tandem with the ‘turn to the self’ discourse, Deacy suggests that our relationship with nostalgia illustrates the shift from objective and transcendent value-systems towards the domain of everyday experience, love and loss.

This book revisits the way we understand religion and the secular, using the medium of popular culture, such as radio, film, TV and music to interrogate the ‘nostalgia-as-religion’ narrative. The interpersonal and social elements of nostalgia are explored, such as through the way radio fostered virtual communities and played a key role regarding national, religious and cultural memory during the mourning of the Queen.

Attention is given to how nostalgia has evolved over time, and how it can be understood as a religious process which transforms our lives at a time of loss and contributes to an eschatological future.

By: Chris Deacy (University of Kent UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781350477810
ISBN 10: 1350477818
Pages: 216
Publication Date: 09 January 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Introduction: ‘Turning to the self’: Why Nostalgia and Religion? 1. Towards an Understanding of Nostalgia as Religion: The Interpersonal, Social and Secular Dimensions of Nostalgia 2-7. National Mourning, Religious and Secular Identities and Communities, and the Harnessing and Reframing of Nostalgia: Reporting the Death of Queen Elizabeth II on BBC Radio 8. Nostalgia, Music and Healing Narratives 9. Retro Salvations: Nostalgic and Wish-Fulfilment Fantasies and Healing Narratives in Film 10. Uncritical Religion and Never-Never Land: Nostophobia and the Reactionary Nature of Nostalgia 11. The Prelapsarian Past and the Utopian Future: Reframing Traditional Theological and Religious Perspectives on Nostalgia and Eschatology Conclusion: Nostalgia as Religion: Religious Impulses and the Creative and Transformative Possibilities of Nostalgia

Dr. Chris Deacy is Honorary Reader in Theology and Religious Studies at the University of Kent, UK, as well as TV and radio presenter, film critic, journalist and podcast host.

Reviews for Nostalgia, Religion and Popular Culture: Rethinking the Sacred and the Secular through the Death of Queen Elizabeth II

Chris Deacy shows how nostalgia is not so much an attempt to retreat to the past as an effort to find hope for the future, out of the shared resources of individual and communal memory. In offering us opportunities to reflect on meaning and value, nostalgia contains unmistakably religious aspects, albeit in secular form. * John C. Lyden, University of Nebraska Omaha, USA * In this original and searching work, Chris Deacy captures the powerful collective emotion in response to the death of Queen Elizabeth II. This text not only shows how radio brings us unique personal connections to significant events, but how it integrates multiple depths of our social worlds across religion and the secular. Deacy skilfully rescues the value of nostalgia as something that helps us transform, not only the past, but the present and future. * Jeremy Carrette, University of Edinburgh, UK * Chris Deacy highlights the very real power and significance that nostalgia plays in everyday life. Deftly paying attention to media, political, social, and religious dimensions of nostalgia, and rooted in an analysis of media coverage of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II, this excellent resource ably explores nostalgia as it functions as “Implicit Religion” for individuals and communities. * Stephen Garner, Laidlaw College, New Zealand *