1. Teens and Nostalgia
LESSON 7
FMS 394

2. Guiding questions
What were some defining characteristics of the early 1970s and how did the cultural climate differ from that of the late 1960s?
Nostalgia is a fairly commonplace word, but what do we mean when we discuss it in media studies?
What is the nostalgic teen film and how does it operate ideologically?
How does American Graffiti exemplify the nostalgic teen film? How did it respond and contribute to cultural discourses at the time? What are its legacies?

3. The 1970s: A Time of Tumult Crisis in Vietnam Assassinations
My Lai and the Tet Offensive
Assassinations
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Robert F. Kennedy
Kent State Shootings
Watergate Scandal

4. What do we mean by “nostalgia”?
A longing for the past
Personal nostalgia
Commodified Nostalgia
Styles, goods, cultural artifacts
Not necessarily personal
Intensified in 20th (and 21st) century
Nostalgia’s Ideological Implications
Reification
Romanticization
Refusal

5. The Nostalgic Teen Film
Generational tension and youthful rebellion filtered through an adult perspective.
Sympathetic, but not indigenous voice
Tension between excess and containment

6. The Original Nostalgic Teen Film?
American Graffiti (1973)
Directed by George Lucas and produced by Francis Ford Coppola
Personal and commodified nostalgia
Narrative structure
Documentary style
Soundtrack
Wider significance of the film?

7. Next time on fms 394