What do “Throwback Thursday” and “Digital Disruption” have in common? In a word: Netflix. As the juggernaut of streaming services, Netflix plays a significant role in the distribution and creation of nostalgic popular culture texts, as well as the fundamental alteration of the media landscape as cord-cutting audiences migrate to subscription-based platforms offering a variety of old and new content.
This edited volume will examine how Netflix is fueled by and fuels audience hunger for nostalgic content, including TV and film. As a part of the series “Reboots, Remakes and Adaptations” originated by series editors Dr. Carlen Lavigne and Dr. Paul Booth, this work focuses exclusively on the intersection between the Netflix platform and the current nostalgia trend in popular culture. What can we learn about our selves, our times, our cultures, in response to an examination of “Neflix and Nostalgia”?
Nostalgic popular culture can include texts that producers create as intentionally nostalgic in content (like Netflix original Stranger Things, set in the 80s) as well texts not initially created as nostalgic, though audiences watching in a later time period have nostalgic responses to these texts (like Netflix catalog items Friends or Full House). Netflix takes great advantage of audience response to nostalgia, banking on attracting audiences who seek out nostalgic content that takes them back in time, as well as new audiences who discover “old” and reimagined content.
Ideas for submissions can include, though are by no means limited to:
- Original Netflix content with a nostalgic angle, such as Stranger Things, 13 Reasons Why, The Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life, Fuller House, The Get Down, or GLOW
- Netflix as a platform for viewing previously created content with nostalgic appeal, such as Friends, The Golden Girls, and “classic” movies from any decade
- Nostalgic content from a particular time period, such as Netflix’s revival of 90s children’s programming including Carmen Sandiego, The Magic School Bus and Bill Nye the Science Guy
- Global perspectives on nostalgic content created and distributed by Netflix
- The Netflix business model and how it leverages nostalgia to expand audiences
- Bingewatching through Netflix and its impact on the reception process
- Multigenerational or demographic analysis of Netflix nostalgia audiences
- Analysis of the Netflix-led “digital disruption” and its connection to nostalgia
- Political or sociological analysis of the surge of Netflix nostalgia, such as “The Trump Effect”
Please submit a 250-word abstract by November 1, 2017. Accepted contributors will be notified by mid-December, with chapters of approximately 5000-6000 words due by May 1, 2018.
Submissions should be directed to:
Dr. Kathryn Pallister
Humanities and Social Sciences Department, Communications Studies Area
Red Deer College
100 College Boulevard, Box 5005
Red Deer, AB, Canada T4N 5H5
(403) 505-9887 (c)
(403) 342-3109 
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