I am one of the stuck students on my research topic. I narrowed it down to the general topic of “nostalgia” and I want to specifically focus on brand recognition remakes and revivals like Robocop, Ghostbusters and Star Wars franchise. I want to use Svetlana Boym’s “Nostalgia and it’s discontent” essay because I like her description of restorative nostalgia; restoring things as they were, which franchises like Star Wars and Jason Bourne tried to capture. The problem I have is being more specific with the topic and my argument within the topic. I want to discuss reflective nostalgia; reflects on what has been, and the possibility of a film property to have done it. Trying to find the scholarly sources that could support that argument or just speak of the topic besides siting Boym is what is getting me stuck.
Ronald Iniego
This is an incredibly rich topic, Ronald, and one with a lot of potential, so I can see why you might be feeling stumped about how to narrow it! One suggestion might be to choose one of the above films as your primary case study (I could see Ghostbusters being a particularly interesting one, b/c of the gender-swap and sense of ownership and outrage from male audiences…it seemed to highlight clearly the ideologically regressive aspect of nostalgia, as conservative impulse.) Choosing a primary text may help you narrow your sources as well, and to find additional texts on the particular film that could supplement the Boym essay. Does this help?