''A Museum of Fifteen Years Ago'': Nostalgia in Three Novels by Douglas Coupland

Abstract

In several of his earlier books, notably Generation X, Douglas Coupland presents his recent past as a lost moral condition and the mid-1970s as the moment of the fall into the confusion of a post-industrial age. His protagonists repeatedly com­memorate and mourn the last days of this putative golden age. While it can be argued that there is nothing essentially unique about his X-generation characters' nostalgia, it is clear that Coupland believes that his characters inhabit a special socio-economic period with unique challenges and losses. Focusing on Generation X (1991), Life After God (1994), and Girlfriend in a Coma (1998), the article examines how Coupland's characters must negotiate between progressive new forms, expressions, anxieties, and styles and an older-fashioned, nostalgic attachment to the past and a search for essential meaning, truth and order. Julia Kristeva's concept of the chora and certain ideas of Fredric Jameson and Jean Baudrillard are used to counterpoint and illuminate the discussion.

Opsomming
In etlike van sy vroee boeke, veral Generation X, bied Douglas Coupland sy onlangse verlede as 'n verlore morele kondisie en die middel-1970s as die oomblik van die sondeval in die verbysteringe van ·n post-industriele tydperk. Sy prota­goniste herdenk en betreur herhaaldelik die laaste dae van hierdie vermeende goue tydperk. Terwyl 'n mens kan aanvoer dat daar niks uniek is omtrent sy X-gene­rasiekarakters se nostalgie nie, is dit duidelik dat Coupland glo dat sy karakters 'n spesiale sosioekonomiese periode - met unieke uitdagings en verliese - bewoon. Met die fokus op Generation X (1991 ), Life after God (1994) en Girlfriend in a Coma (1998), ondersoek hierdie artikel hoe Coupland se karakters die weg moet vind tussen progressiewe nuwe vorme, uitdrukkings, style en angstighede, en 'n oud­modiese, nostalgiese gehegtheid aan die verlede en 'n soeke na essensiele be­tekenis, waarheid en orde. Julia Kristeva se konsep van die chora en sekere idees van Fredric Jameson en Jean Baudrillard word gebruik as kontrapunt en om die bespreking verder toe te lig.