Unlike the Ones We Used to Know
White Christmas and Ecological Nostalgia in the Anthropocene
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21722355 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Alex Tischer (Fordham University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 29 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 256-269 |
| Publication date | 2025-07-03 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Green Letters (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1468-8417 • E-ISSN: 2168-1414 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/14688417.2025.2594450 |
| OpenAlex | W4416814275 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 17 |
Jukebox musicals and theatrical film adaptations are frequently disparaged as nostalgia machines lacking socio-political engagement. Yet, this article argues jukebox and adaptation musicals can offer an unexplored environmental critique by utilising emotionally negative definitions of nostalgia when producing ecological nostalgia. Analysing the 2008 musical adaptation of White Christmas, I argue that the show depicts not just nostalgic reflection for a pre–Second World War United States but ecological nostalgia for an America before the visible effects of climate change. This emerges textually through the lyrical use of subjunctive aesthetics and temporally through its clonal revival in over 100 cities annually, depicting consistent Christmastime meteorological conditions onstage in a period of meteorological instability. This creates an experiment via constancy by performing an ecological past that highlights the differences between Christmas onstage and outside, potentially discomforting audiences when recognising one is enjoying an environment onstage that no longer exists
Anthropocene · Deep time · Ecocriticism · Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Religion, Ecology, and Ethics
| Highly cited | No |
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