Screening and Watching Nostalgia An analysis of nostalgic television fiction and its reception in Germany and Spain
- Autores: Stefanie Ángela Armbruster
- Directores de la Tesis: Matilde Delgado Reina (dir. tes.), Emili Prado (dir. tes.), Lothar Mikos (dir. tes.)
- Lectura: En la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona ( España ) en 2013
- Idioma: inglés
- Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: José Manuel Palacio Arranz (presid.), Emilio Fernández Peña (secret.), Rainer Winter (voc.)
- Materias:
- Enlaces
- Tesis en acceso abierto en: TDX
- Resumen
Today's television landscape is characterized by a decisive look backwards. Also in Germany and Spain this can be observed. Across the boundaries of genres, nostalgia is an important component of television fiction and its reception. However, the phenomenon, as far as the interrelation between text and reception is concerned, is only scarcely investigated by media and television studies, not to mention the lack of country comparative investigations. This study wants to collaborate in the process of filling this gap. "What is nostalgia in television?" and "How can the phenomenon be grasped theoretically?" are the main questions. Further sub-questions already reflect the later composition of the work. It will be asked: "What are the 'genres' of nostalgia?" "What textual characteristics do they have?" "How far does a nostalgic text prefigure nostalgic emotions?" And finally: "How are the nostalgic texts received from within the frames of different groups and against the background of different lifeworlds?" In order to investigate these questions, the study consists of three main parts: Part I provides the theoretical background for the investigation, Part II is dedicated to the television analysis of a total of six examples from different nostalgia 'genres', and, Part III investigates the side of reception, conducting focus group discussions with two age groups from both Germany and Spain. As a general frame, the understanding of nostalgia as an emotion is central. The study departs here from authors such as Jameson (1991) who describe postmodern nostalgia as explicitly affectless. In the focus is instead Tan's (1996) approach on aesthetic emotions. The author basically distinguishes two different forms of emotions: Firstly, the so called "fiction emotions" or "F emotions" that find their stimulus on the fictional layer of the text, secondly, so-called "artefact emotions" or "A emotions" that are provoked by the artefact layer. Tan's theory is combined with the nostalgia and the memory discourse. In so doing, the first section of the work provides a framework for the further investigation of nostalgia in different 'genres'. In the second and third part of the study, the framework is applied, and assumptions are investigated. The main aim here is to identify nostalgia in television fiction, more precisely television series in the form of reruns, remakes and period dramas. If the nostalgia on offer in the text indeed provokes nostalgia in its audiences is scrutinised in Part III. Based on questionnaires and focus group interviews with two different age groups from both Germany and Spain, it is here where the results from the television analysis are set in relation to the reception and where further characteristics of nostalgia in television are scrutinised. In the end, against the background of a specific sample of nostalgia texts and a specific group of recipients, a first picture of nostalgic television fiction and its reception in Germany and Spain is drawn.
