The past, famously, is a foreign country – but in the twenty-first century, it’s one in which we increasingly seek solace.
No matter the relentless pace of technological innovation and the digitisation of everything from money to media – our appetites for retro design and aesthetics, for cultural products that reimagine technicolour-dream versions of decades gone by, or for fantasies of a past golden political age are ever on the rise.
But 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?
This edition of Griffith Review surveys our need to idealise, sensationalise and glamorise – and asks what the circular nature of our obsessions says about our present cultural moment.
We’re looking for non-fiction and fiction that addresses the theme.
Full submissions only – no pitches, please.
We prefer pieces that are no longer than 4,000 words (they can, of course, be much shorter than this). Submit here.
Griffith Review is a literary and current affairs journal that offers fresh takes on big ideas. Each edition responds to a loose theme and features essays, short fiction, conversations, poetry and visual art by emerging and established creatives from Australia and overseas.