Vehicular Vernacular: The Mid-Century Airstream as a Case Study in Preservation, Nostalgia and Subculture Formation
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Date
2011-03
Authors
Bezirdjian, Melina Carla
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Oregon
Abstract
Airstream brand travel trailers from the 1950s and 60s have developed a
subculture dedicated to their preservation and use. This subculture serves as a case study
for how nostalgia, defined in a postmodern context, may promote preservation and
creative communion with the past. After examining criticisms of preservation’s focus on
material integrity, the discussion focuses on the need to factor user-based relationships
into historic preservation. A postmodern reexamination of nostalgia defines it not merely
as a longing for the past but also as a form of social critique which seeks to mitigate
modernity with the past. Mid-century Airstream preservation reflects a desire to revive
specific, positive values of the past in order to ameliorate the future and form temporal
continuity. For the mid-century Airstream subculture, nostalgia fosters both restoration
and recreation, allowing for an iconic emblem of the past to function in the present rather
than fade into obsolescence.
Description
xiii, 119 p. : ill. (some col.)
Keywords
Airstream trailers, Nostalgia, Historic preservation