Reconstructive nostalgia in later life fandom

Abstract

Older people are often stereotyped as being ‘stuck in the past’. They are seen as liable to moaning about change, of disliking new, contemporary culture, of living in the sweet embrace of nostalgic reminiscence. This article argues that a form of nostalgia – which I call reconstructive nostalgia, based on the work of Svetlana Boym – is an important part of fandom in the later life course. It is crucial for fannish object-relating, as this nostalgic process enables long-term fans to remain engaged with their favourite cultural texts, which change – sometimes fundamentally – across many decades. Based on in-depth interviews with 35 older sports fans (average age 72.5 years), this article introduces a new type of non-pejorative nostalgia to describe the process whereby an individual cherry picks aspects of a remembered text, and ‘reads’ those characteristics in the contemporary text, thus strengthening the subject-object bond. This textual manipulation helps to nurture ontological security, as the long-term fan seeks to retain their favourite text(s) as a central pillar of identity