"What Works": Instrumentalism, Ideology, and Nostalgia in Post-Cold War Culture

SMITH, Jeffrey Alan. "What Works": Instrumentalism, Ideology, and Nostalgia in Post-Cold War Culture. In Blouin, Michael. The Silence of Fallout: Nuclear Criticism in a Post-Cold War World. Newcastle on Tyne, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 16-44. ISBN 1-4438-4479-9. 2013.

Basic information

• Original name: "What Works": Instrumentalism, Ideology, and Nostalgia in Post-Cold War Culture
• Name in Czech: "Co funguje": instrumentalism, ideologie, a Nostalgie v Post-Cold War kultury
• Authors: SMITH, Jeffrey Alan (840 United States of America, guarantor, belonging to the institution).
• Edition: Newcastle on Tyne, UK, The Silence of Fallout: Nuclear Criticism in a Post-Cold War World, p. 16-44, 29 pp. 2013.
• Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Other information

• Original language: English
• Type of outcome: Chapter(s) of a specialized book
• Field of Study: 50802 Media and socio-cultural communication
• Country of publisher: United States of America
• Confidentiality degree: is not subject to a state or trade secret
• Publication form: printed version "print"
• WWW: URL URL
• RIV identification code: RIV/00216224:14210/13:00074911
• Organization unit: Faculty of Arts
• ISBN: 1-4438-4479-9
• Keywords in English: nuclear criticism; nuclear weapons; literary theory; ideology
• Tags: rivok
• Tags: International impact

Abstract

Nuclear Criticism was a trend in literary theory that emerged most prominently in the 1980s. While there has been a tendency to remain "silent" in the post-Cold War world, it is essential to temper this suggestion by recognizing scholars who continue to take up questions posed by Nuclear Criticism. This volume explores various contemporary manifestations of nuclear anxiety and advocacy as well as the periodic gaps where critical engagement seems to grow inaudible. The approach is one of reconciliation, an undercurrent of trying to bring the humanities, and theory specifically, into the realm of the "real world," of the practical -- and urgent -- matters plaguing the citizens of a nuclear age. This opening chapter frames the collection by discussing the interrelated roles of instrumentalism, ideology, and nostalgia in the construction of nuclear discourses, arguing that if one role of the critic is to undo such constructions, that job is as important now as it was during the Cold War, or ever. It may be from these traversals of disciplinary bounds -- from theory to cultural studies to film studies and beyond -- that we can recognize a significant future for Nuclear Criticism.