The past, famously, is a foreign country – but in the twenty-first century, it’s one in which we increasingly seek solace. What fuels this love affair with recycling our history? What periods do we choose to romanticise, and how do our rose-tinted glasses occlude reality? Is all this nostalgia signifying – as the late Mark Fisher opined – the disappearance of the future?
Griffith Review 83: Past Perfect surveys our need to idealise, sensationalise and glamorise – and asks what the circular nature of our obsessions says about our present cultural moment.
Griffith Review is a quarterly publication of essays, memoir, reportage, short fiction, poetry and artwork from emerging and established writers. By subscribing to Griffith Review you are helping to champion work by Australia’s best writers, thinkers and researchers. Current and past issues are also accessible at the Library.
