Past Forward

A leading psychological researcher shares compelling science and valuable practices for mindfully using nostalgia to live a more grounded, connected, and purposeful life. When an old song makes you want to dance like you did in high school, or you long for the comforting taste of your mom’s cooking, that’s more than just memory—it’s nostalgia. But is nostalgia all about “living in the past” to hide from reality? In Past Forward, psychologist Clay Routledge presents a fascinating investigation into an emotion we all experience yet often misunderstand, revealing nostalgia’s extraordinary potential to enrich our present—and our future. Dr. Routledge has been at the forefront of a new wave of research that has established a fresh, evidence-based view of nostalgia—not as a psychological weakness, but as a complex and valuable resource for our well-being. Here he presents a treasury of informed insights and science-based practices to help you turn nostalgia into a powerful ally, including: • Understanding nostalgia—what this feeling is and why it’s necessary for a healthy psyche • Enhancing your sense of self—how nostalgia can help you build confidence and self-esteem • Deepening connection—the possibilities and pitfalls of nostalgia as a foundation for personal and group relationships • Coping with stress—invoking the past to face present-day anxieties with clarity and resilience • Finding purpose—how nostalgic reflection can reveal your most enduring values • Moving into the future—excavating the past as a source for innovation, creativity, and hope If we approach nostalgia with awareness and discernment, we can use our cherished memories to help look outside of ourselves, connect with others, and weave a meaningful life story that supports us through difficult times. As Dr. Routledge puts it, “By engaging in nostalgia, we are not moving toward the past. We are bringing the past forward to the present to help us build a more fulfilling future.”

A wide-ranging collection of concise essays, Past Forward introduces core features of Korean history that illuminate current issues and pressing concerns, including recent political upheavals, social developments and cultural shifts. Adapted from Kyung Moon Hwang’s regular columns in the Korea Times of Seoul, the essays present interpretative points concerning historical debates and controversies to generate thinking about the ongoing impact of the past on the present and vice versa: how Korea’s present circumstances reflect and shape the evolving understanding of its past. In taking the reader on a compelling journey through history, Past Forward paints a distinctive, fascinating portrait of Korea and Koreans both yesterday and today.

This book is born from the will to undertake a joint research path on the general theme of transformation and renewal of urban contexts, deepening the case of historical Chinese and Italian cities. The research collected case studies and theoretical elaborations, focusing on the Chinese city of Shanghai and Chongqing and other Italian urban realities, filtering contents around thematic nodes such as memory, narration and reflection on new urban models. In particular, the initial idea emerged from shared reflections between Chinese and Italian scientific professors responsible for international agreements established between the Department of Architecture and the Design of Sapienza University of Rome and Chinese remarkable institutions. Indeed, the present research, promoted and directed by Dina Nencini, was joined by Anna Irene Del Monaco of Sapienza and Shaoming LU of Shanghai Jiaotong University. The book directly and indirectly draws on a series of questions about the “memory work” walking a theoretical path which has a relevant milestone in Lieu de memorie (Pierre Nora 1984) and the 1996 Trienniale di Milano entitled “Identità, differenze: Triennale di Milano, XIX Esposizione internazionale: integrazione e pluralità nelle forme del nostro tempo: le culture tra effimero e duraturo” (Identity, Differences: Triennale of Milan, XIX International Exposition: Integration and plurality in the forms of our time: cultures between ephemeral and enduring).

She jumped barefoot out of the car, chasing an obscure figure she thought was familiar. It disappeared amidst the smoke and sounds of a hundred vehicles whizzing past them on the bustling streets of Mumbai. He exasperatedly dashed after her to make sure she was okay. She stood dazed in the middle of the street, wondering if she had really seen the one she had never expected to see after all these years. His voice snapped, “Is this how it’s going to be? Me chasing you while you chase someone else for the rest of our lives?” Indeed. Had her past caught up to her? Or was she tossing away her present for the chance to relive her past?

A wide-ranging collection of concise essays, Past Forward introduces core features of Korean history that illuminate current issues and pressing concerns, including recent political upheavals, social developments and cultural shifts. Adapted from Kyung Moon Hwang’s regular columns in the Korea Times of Seoul, the essays present interpretative points concerning historical debates and controversies to generate thinking about the ongoing impact of the past on the present and vice versa: how Korea’s present circumstances reflect and shape the evolving understanding of its past. In taking the reader on a compelling journey through history, Past Forward paints a distinctive, fascinating portrait of Korea and Koreans both yesterday and today.

Essays by R.H. Cravens, Arthur C. Danto and Madonna.

Cinema, the primary vehicle for storytelling in the twentieth century, is being reconfigured by new media in the twenty-first. Terms such as "worldbuilding," "virtual reality," and "transmedia" introduce new methods for constructing a screenplay and experiencing and sharing a story. Similarly, 3D cinematography, hypercinema, and visual effects require different modes for composing an image, and virtual technology, motion capture, and previsualization completely rearrange the traditional flow of cinematic production. What does this mean for telling stories? Fast Forward answers this question by investigating a full range of contemporary creative practices dedicated to the future of mediated storytelling and by connecting with a new generation of filmmakers, screenwriters, technologists, media artists, and designers to discover how they work now, and toward what end. From Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin's exploration of VR spherical filmmaking to Rebeca Méndez's projection and installation work exploring climate change to the richly mediated interactive live performances of the collective Cloud Eye Control, this volume captures a moment of creative evolution and sets the stage for imagining the future of the cinematic arts.

In Past Forward: French Cinema and the Post-Colonial Heritage, author Dayna Oscherwitz focuses on the world of French films with a new lens. Drawing upon a wealth of research and the examination of popular French movies, Oscherwitz offers fresh perspectives not only on the unique importance of motion pictures and their indelible influence on French character, but on current debates regarding individual and collective memory. Past Forward traces the development and ascension of the French heritage film—those historical and costume dramas focusing on prestigious French subjects, events, and settings. These motion pictures, preeminent during a period of globalization and fear over the affects of immigration in 1980s France, quickly came to embody a specific version of French national and collective identity: one that idealized the past, condemned the present, and created an institutional form of memory. Oscherwitz presents the intriguing notion that French heritage films are not exclusively expressions of nationalism and nostalgia as has commonly been asserted. On the contrary, although these movies were born out of a perceived loss of French culture, their ambivalence toward traditional hallmarks of nationalism opens them up to new interpretation. Also in contrast to typical conceptions, the author suggests that these heritage films are far from cinematic bastions of multicultural backlash; instead, she argues, popular culture has in its own fashion reinserted the history of colonialism and immigration into the national past, thus reimagining heritage itself. Against this backdrop, Oscherwitz goes on to investigate the multicultural worlds of beur and banlieue movies—cinema seemingly in direct contrast with the heritage film—offering the theory that these films serve as a “countermemory” to an institutionalized one and provide alternative models of collective memory and identity. Through careful analysis of several examples, Oscherwitz demonstrates how these two seemingly different realms—heritage and multicultural cinema—are far from mutually exclusive in the construction of French identity. Throughout the volume, numerous well-known French movies are reexamined, inviting new interpretations of and challenging old views through investigations of familiar cinematic works. Past Forward is arevolutionary volume that boldly reimagines our ideas about French film and its role in communicating history and memory.