Nostalgia and nationalism: Facebook ‘archives’ and the constitution of Thai photographic histories

Abstract

This article considers the implications of the popularisation of Facebook groups that share historical photographs for the writing of Thai national and photographic histories. Rather than dismissing these groups as lacking in historical rigour, I propose that the nostalgic impetus behind their formation indicates an important way through which we may rethink the continued relevance of Thailand's history to its current sociopolitical situation. Drawing from Craig J. Reynolds’ (1992) argument regarding the interrelationship between the ‘plot of Thai history’ and the narrative historical form, I consider how this plot might be challenged or displaced through a movement from text to image, and from the material to the digital.