Nostalgia Based Media in a Post-Postmodern World

Abstract

This thesis examines the Netflix series Stranger Things as a contemporary case study in nostalgia, pastiche, and post-postmodern media culture. As one of the most influential nostalgiadriven television series of the past decade, Stranger Things constructs a stylized version of the 1980s that resonates with both audiences who lived through the decade and younger viewers experiencing it through mediated memory. Drawing from theories of post-postmodernism, pastiche, and nostalgia, this study explores how the series blends aesthetic imitation, cultural references, and character representation to reframe the past in a way that is emotionally meaningful, commercially strategic, and culturally impactful. Using a visual textual analysis, content was reviewed and coded across categories such as material culture, popular media references, character aesthetics, and evolving visual motifs. The analysis focused exclusively on visual cues, including settings, props, fashion, and cinematographic parallels. Findings reveal that the show consistently uses visual pastiche to evoke both direct and mediated nostalgia, relying on familiar cultural markers of the 1980s. The results also show a shift across seasons, from more subtle references toward increasingly heightened and hyperreal recreations of the decade. This study demonstrates how Stranger Things functions not only as entertainment but also as a cultural text that shapes collective memory of the 1980s. The series blends sincerity with stylization, illustrating the role of nostalgia within a post-postmodern media landscape and highlighting how contemporary audiences engage with reconstructed versions of the past.