Lara López Millán (University of Valencia)
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33008/IJCMR.2023.08 | Issue 10 | July 2023
This article aims to approach the nostalgic essence of the aesthetic community Dark Academia through the social network Tumblr, in order to create new knowledge about nostalgic practices in the virtual environment. To do so, I will analyse the origins and evolution of the community, with an emphasis on the rise of its popularity in the wake of the global pandemic of 2020. Based on my own experience as a dark academic, I will make use of cyberethnographic and folksonomic analysis from the inside, as a participating member of the community. As a form of supporting research and to give users a voice, I will use survey methodology and online interviews to delve deeper into the nostalgic sensibilities of the community's participants, the dark academics, by surveying a thousand members. In this study, I will evaluate how important visual nostalgia has become in the early 2020s and whether the past is more present than ever among us.
Keywords: Dark Academia, Nostalgia, Social Media, Tumblr.
Introduction
We are currently living in a time of global uncertainty. Having undergone social, political and economic changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, perspectives and approaches to daily life has shifted significantly. Social unrest and the uncertainty of tomorrow has pushed younger generations such as millennials —born between 1982 and 1994—, but especially Generation Z[1] —born between 1995 and 2010—, towards nostalgia for the past.[2] The recent emergence of aesthetic communities on social networks is a clear example of this. Today, the word aesthetic refers to a set of communities[3], that develop on online platforms and maintain a visual coherence. Tumblr, TikTok, Instagram, Pinterest, and even YouTube, are some of the main platforms where users develop such aesthetics. The variety of aesthetics that have emerged is immense, each of them characterised by a completely different visual identity. Amongst the most popular in recent years are: Dark Academia, Light Academia, Cottagecore, Feralcore and Fairycore, among others.
When we cross the borders from the real to the virtual, we discover that nostalgia broadly permeates the digital environment echoing the past and constituting what we call "visual nostalgia." Several research studies have dealt with this visual nostalgia over the last decades, most notably, Katharina Niemeyer’s Media and Nostalgia: Yearning for the Past, Present and Future (2014). This nostalgia has the function of beautifying or aestheticising the visual objects of the past, objects that vary in terms of aesthetics, but which refer to previous centuries or decades. Aesthetic communities provide numerous examples, such as 1950s Valentine’s cards for Lovecore, or Victorian botanical encyclopaedias for Cottagecore.
These online aesthetic communities, offer their members experiences that are not easy to access or encounter in physical spaces. Such as fantasy places we find in fiction —Hogwarts, Narnia, Middle-earth, etc.— or the dreamlike spaces of yesteryear —Ancient Rome, the Regency era, the Roaring Twenties, etc.—. Their members conceive nostalgia as a process of continuous feedback to lose themselves in supposedly simpler times.[4]
Through this lens, I will analyse the case of Dark Academia: an aesthetic community that romanticises studying and privileges the academic environment of an often-elitist past. It should be noted that not all aesthetic communities refer to the past, as in the case of feralcore, which focusses on themes of mental health, survival and feral animals such as raccoons and opossums. However, those that do, as in the case of Dark Academia, will attempt to create a simulation of the past, allowing users to enter and enrich themselves through aesthetic expressions. Thus, the connection between individuals is reinforced through the exchange of virtual objects, artistic works or information that they associate with this symbolic past. We can observe such personal, and at times contested, experiences with the nostalgic subculture through the 2022 special issue for Post45, edited by Olivia Stowell and Mitch Therieau, where academics analyse their relationship with Dark Academia.[5]
This article seeks to understand how social networks play a fundamental role in the idea of nostalgia, concentrating on the development of nostalgic aesthetic communities that have become a safe space for young people during the pandemic. The text will explain how the pandemic has been a driving force for these online communities, focusing its attention on Dark Academia. This is with the objective of discovering what kind of online practices or daily routines the dark academics value in order to escape from the present and live in the past, specifically on the social network Tumblr. This platform was chosen because it is considered the space where Dark Academia first developed before reaching out to other social networks. This includes certain Dark Academic fandom practices, for example: The Secret History or Harry Potter; as well as communities such as Studyblr. Using this objective as a focal point, the research will make use of two types of methodology. First, a review of the practices exercised by the community on Tumblr will be carried out, using the folksonomic method, which will be explained below. Next, a survey of dark academics will be conducted, in order to understand members’ affective relationship with the Dark Academia aesthetic.
Literature review:
Immersive Media: Nostalgia in social networks
The concept of nostalgia has a long and ever evolving history. Starting with the 19th century definition given by Dr. De Witt C. Peters as: “a species of melancholy, or a mild type of insanity, caused by disappointment and a continuous longing for home.”[6] Until the middle of the 20th century, nostalgia was clearly related to melancholy, loneliness, and depression, and was therefore often considered a psychological pathology.[7] However, later research in the mid-20th century has changed its significance and there are no longer any associations with the disease.
Works such as sociologist Fred Davis’, Yearning for Yesterday: A Sociology of Nostalgia (1979), conceptualises nostalgia as a sentimental longing for yesterday or a fondness for the possessions and activities associated with the past.[8] His research is a clear reflection of how nostalgia can be clearly linked to “a period of radical discontinuity in a people’s sense of who and what they are”,[9] referring to a “collective identity crisis.”[10] Recalling the global pandemic situation, we have been living through in recent years, it would not be wrong to describe this era as a period of radical instability, and to consider how it has affected our identity.
It should also be noted that there have been numerous studies that highlight nostalgia has a mixed character. Although concepts such as loneliness and melancholy are associated with nostalgia, it also has positive effects that: “increases social connectedness, enhances positive self-regard, improves mood and contributes to perceptions of the meaning of life by linking the past and the present.”[11] Throughout history, nostalgia has maintained associations with negative,[12] positive,[13] or both, negative and positive,[14] conceptions. But when we focus on the present, it is impossible not to refer to the idea of economic postmodernity promoted by Fredic Jameson. The literary theorist develops the concept of "nostalgia" around user consumption, focusing especially on postmodernist cinema:
“We are now, in other words, in ‘intertextuality’ as a deliberate, built-in feature of the aesthetic effect, and as the operator of a new connotation of ‘pastness’ and pseudo-historical depth, in which the history of aesthetic styles displaces ‘real’ history”.[15]
The typology attached to nostalgia has expanded to the point of being associated with cultural phenomena. Nostalgia has moved from being individual to becoming collective, being clearly associated with certain objects and practices. Videogame franchises of the 1990s such as Pokémon are a clear example of this, as well as the revival of past objects such as vinyl records, each evoking a preceding subculture or era of childhood. Theorists Susan L. Holak and William J. Havlena described nostalgia as “a positively valanced complex feeling, emotion, or mood produced by reflection on things (objects, persons, experiences, ideas) associated with the past.”[16] When we talk about objects, we refer to "symbolic objects" that help us to stir our emotions and trigger that nostalgic wave. Business academic Russell W. Belk goes further and speaks of “a wistful mood that may be prompted by an object, a scene, a smell, or a strain of music.”[17] Belk's idea is arguably the ideal method of juxtaposing past and present. Today we know that social networks have become the main space for carrying out this function collectively. Not only in a private social environment, but also in a public one.[18]
Due to the evolution of new technologies and virtual paradigms, media theorists have argued that research into 21st century nostalgia should go further. Here, Michael Pickering and Emily Keightley argue that we should go beyond conceptions of nostalgia where the public is seen simply as a passive recipient of nostalgic content.[19] Day after day, the action of logging onto a social network and posting content related to the past —images, videos, music, quotes, etc.— has become commonplace. The consumption and creation of symbolic objects or images through social networks consequently promotes connections between certain individuals who share the same practice.
Ryan Lizardi, Digital Media and Humanities theorist, notes that "social media is certainly about the eternal "now," but there is a growing trend within contemporary communication applications and platforms that, though not universal, points to the increasing encouragement of waxing nostalgic."[20] The last two decades, we have been able to observe, thanks to folksonomic studies of social networks,[21]how categorisation tags related to the past have increased. One of the main examples is #ThrowbackThursday, also known as #tbt, which marks its presence in the vast majority of online platforms, showing a blast from the past on Instagram. This was followed by others such as #WayBackWednesday and #FlashbackFriday, because of a nostalgic overflow associated with the days of the week.[22]
To delve deeper into the practices of other users, the folksonomic methodology is essential to establishing such a framework for studying digital nostalgia. The term was coined by Thomas Vander Wal,[23] following a discussion at the Asylomar Institute for Information Architecture. Folksonomy is a process of tagging, where users of a certain platform use keywords to identify their shared content. Vander defines it as: "the result of personal free tagging of information and objects (anything with a URL) for one's own retrieval."[24] Recent studies have identified the pandemic’s influence on social networks, making use of social folksonomic analysis, and this approach will be key to this article’s methodological basis.[25]
But going further, studies such as Sergio Davalos et al. (2015), focus on addressing the most recurrent nostalgic topics on the social network Facebook: "film making, spirituality (Christianity and spiritual path), historical events (presidential elections, man on the moon and Gandhi) and life stories (love story, family and working parent)."[26] Their findings reveal that nostalgic Facebook posts contain more words and that a higher percentage of these words reflect cognitive and affective processing than general posts.[27] Some studies have assumed that Facebook updates were more emotional and interpersonal,[28]this may be due to the style of its interface and the use it offers. Facebook users seek to feel close to a clearly idealised past, which in most cases they have directly experienced, thus creating a collective nostalgia and affirming an existing sense of identity. However, when users try to escape from the present by delving into a past they have not experienced, these shared practices can help to forge a new identity, creating new communities and senses of belonging. In demonstrating that nostalgia is a social and collective feeling, we find that it is effectively constructed in online networks of affective communities, as social media serves as a means of virtual access to the past, both real and imagined.
Aesthetic communities of nostalgia on Tumblr
In reference to emotional communities, historian Barbara Rosenwein first introduced the concept in 2001, following her article in the American Historical Review.
“People lived - and live - in what I propose to call "emotional communities." These are precisely the same as social communities - families, neighborhoods, parliaments, guilds, monasteries, parish church memberships - but the researcher looking at them seeks above all to uncover systems of feeling: what these communities (and the individuals within them) define and assess as valuable or harmful to them.”[29]
However, in an interview conducted in 2010, Rosenwein proposes two new definitions of the concept: the first, "social groups that adhere to the same valuations of emotions and how they should be expressed", and the second, "groups of people animated by common or similar interests, values, and emotional styles and valuations." [30] Both definitions are essential to understanding how nostalgic narratives develop in social networks and how these narratives ultimately create aesthetic communities of nostalgia.
But what about Tumblr? Founded in 2007 by David Karp and Marco Arment, this platform focuses on the archiving and circulation of visual media. Tumblr's interface is multifunctional, it can host text, audio, images, videos, links, etc. Since its inception, communities and fandoms from all corners of the world have gathered on the site to share their reflections, as its infrastructure encourages participation and collaboration. Thanks to the organisational folksonomy that has characterised the microblogging platform from the outset, it has made it possible over time to create a website architecture based on the common interests of its users shared through tags. This practice has facilitated the creation and development of online communities with collective tastes, thus generating numerous aesthetic phenomena. It should be noted that "the fact that Tumblr users are bonded primarily by common, passionate affective and progressive interests rather than solely by age group is an essential aspect of the platform for many of its young users."[31] Tumblr is a constantly changing site where diverse aesthetics —Dark Academia, Cottagecore, Naturecore… —, communities —Studyblr, Bookblr, Witchblr…— or fandoms —Harry Potter, Marvel, Stranger Things…— coexist, within which its members possess a trait of multivocality that follows different discourses in reference to their preferences. In this way, numerous presentations of nostalgia can be found on the platform, making virtual nostalgia cyclical.
But the situation has evolved in recent years since the pandemic. Helga Mariel Soto, professor at FADU, informs us that content related to aesthetics, understood as styles or subcultures that function as identity brands, has grown exponentially, especially among centennials, or Generation Z, and millennials.[32] This is connected to the needs that have arisen due to the pandemic situation: “a need to romanticise and aestheticise life in the face of an uncontrollable and unpredictable environment.”[33] This is the urge to escape from the everydayness of an unsatisfied life into imaginary worlds related to the idealised past. Users of nostalgic aesthetic communities on Tumblr make use of the platform to construct through visuality an escape route, to be able to escape into a past that they considered somehow "better."
The annual analysis of Tumblr by the account https://fandom.tumblr.com, called "Year in Review", reveals that during the year 2021 the trendiest popular aesthetic communities on the platform were: Cottagecore, Dark Academia, Light Academia, Fairycore, Farmcore, Chaotic Academia, Naturecore, Romantic Academia, Cyberpunk and Lovecore.
Figure 3 - Post from the aesthetic Cottagecore by @etherea1ity.
Figure 4 - Post from the aesthetic Romantic Academy by @academia-lucifer.
Figure 5 - Post from the aesthetic Fairycore by @happyheidi.
Figure 6 - Post from the aesthetic cyberpunk by @elina-clevergull.
Each of these aesthetics functions as a grouping agent of values and associated images as can be seen in the figures (3-6). However, they can also be materialised through certain stylistic elements such as clothing or hobbies. In terms of clothing, dark academics tend to wear outfits inspired by this aesthetic, which mixes American preppy style with Victorian-era masculinity (fig.8). On the other hand, in reference to the preferred activities of the cottagecore aesthetic, members try to recover the intimate and homely and therefore revalue the manual and handmade (fig.7). It should be noted that similarities can be found in the different aesthetics. For example, between Cottagecore and Naturecore, or the Academies. In this sense, Soto opens two paths when it comes to how these aesthetic communities make use of nostalgia: "on the one hand, audiovisual and graphic resources of Tik Tok are used to show these aesthetic choices. But at the same time, they reject the excess of technology in the current context to immerse themselves in other past techniques: users use typewriters or pen and paper to write or pick their own fruit instead of buying it on the internet.”[34] Although Soto is referring to TikTok, the same is true of Tumblr, where Dark Academia originally emerged.
Finally, it is vital to be aware of the affective response of such aesthetic subcultures. Louisa Stein, a theorist of film and media culture, reminds us that “millennial feels culture combines an aesthetics of intimate emotion—the sense that we are accessing an author’s immediate and personal emotional response to media culture—with an aesthetics of high performativity, calling attention to mediation and to the labor of the author.”[35] Stein’s argument can be taken as a basis for understanding the sentiment shared by members of aesthetic communities, whether they belong to the millennial or Z generation. This sentiment takes part in the actions of romanticising and idealising, expressing that nostalgia or longing. This is embodied in their aesthetics and virtual practices, which can be analysed to understand the symbolic essence of each of the aesthetic communities.
Method and visual materials
Social network analysis: Tumblr
The main method of understanding and analysing Dark Academia on Tumblr will be cyberethnographic analysis as, “it is no longer imaginable to conduct ethnography without considering online spaces.”[36] The sociologist John Beattie reaffirmed that:
Whatever the type of culture, close and sustained observation is needed in order to understand what people are doing, to identify their major social institutions, and to investigate the casual interrelationships between them. [...] The observer must live in and with the community he is studying.[37]
As a Tumblr user since 2017, after discovering aesthetic communities and delving into them during confinement, in early July 2020 I changed the name of my Tumblr account to @nostalgicacademia, and began to feel more familiar with Dark Academia, the environment and its members. We know that practices within the community are an important factor in connecting with the members, so from September 2020 I started to share virtual practices like those proposed by the dark academics.
In order to carry out the study, I investigated the relationship between two elements: Dark Academia and nostalgia. Although we understand that nostalgia is part of the aesthetic community, and permeates both the imagery and practices that dark academics value, I sought to go further and focus on posts that share the following tags: #Dark Academia + #Nostalgia, this was achieved by implementing a folksonomy search.
Data collection
In parallel, I made use of two data collection techniques to broaden the study paradigm: online interviews with Dark Academia users to ask them about their engagement with the Dark Academia phenomenon, and an online survey of 1000 dark academics. Thanks to the Tumblr account, I was able to publish the survey and thus reach the aesthetic’s members much more easily. The survey was conducted between 15 December 2021 and 01 February 2022, as the survey was closed when it reached 1000 responses. The use of both methodologies are justified, as the perspectives of dark academics are crucial to understanding the essence of their visual imaginary. This approach allows researchers direct access to the voices, articulations, and interpretations of some fans.[38]
The questions asked were as follows:
How old are you?
What country do you live in?
Gender (You can write a hyphen [-] if you do not wish to answer this question)
In what year did you discover the aesthetic of Dark Academia?
How did you discover the aesthetic of Dark Academia?
Do you think the pandemic has helped make the Dark Academia aesthetic more widely known?
If you answered yes, why do you think so?
What are the books you associate with the Dark Academia aesthetic?
What films or series do you associate with the Dark Academia aesthetic?
Have you acquired some habits related to Dark Academia in your day-to-day life?
When you think of Dark Academia what comes to mind? (Places, objects, sounds, smells, sensations... it can be anything)
Feel free to leave a message or comment here if desired (You can leave your social media profile or your email if you wish)
The questions selected were chosen to approach Dark Academia from the widest possible angle, broadening its scope so that in the future it could be studied from multiple approaches and disciplines. However, this study will focus its attention on those responses that show the affective essence of Dark Academia and allude to the nostalgic sensations of its members.
Dark Academia: an approximation
Aesthetic nostalgia communities function as subcultures associated with both stylistic codes and interests, and often are related to a specific historical period, such as the Victorian era with Dark Academia or the Regency era with Cottagecore. By simply accessing the social network and typing in the name of the aesthetic community, the user can get a first impression of the essence of the aesthetic.
As of today —19th January 2023— the #Dark Academia hashtag has 417.200 followers and between 150 and 200 posts are published daily, making it extremely difficult to keep up with the analysis of individual posts. However, after having carried out an exhaustive search on the platform for two years, using the folkosnomic method, I found the first publications with the hashtag #Dark Academia in January 2017 (fig. 10), when a post went viral that highlighted the three works considered "the holy trinity" of the community: Kill Your Darlings (John Krokidas, 2013), Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir, 1989) and The Secret History (Donna Tartt, 1992). It is true that each of these texts had a long history thanks to their fandom, both online and off. For example, The Secret History’s popularity had been on the rise since the early 2010s, but at no point had the relationships between the three works become closer than on Tumblr. This connection is known thanks to the following research carried out on the platform. A large number of the fandom’s accounts have disappeared over time, but databases such as the Wayback Machine allow us to access their interface of the time. This online archive is how I discovered the increase in Tumblr posts related to The Secret History at the beginning of the 2010s.
It should be noted that the formative process of these nostalgic aesthetic communities will stipulate a relational network of elements, maintaining a certain coherence between them. The three works mentioned above have many similarities in their plots, starting from the fact that their characters are young academics with a tragic ending. Likewise, both their setting in the last century, Kill Your Darlings (1940s), Dead Poets Society (1959) and The Secret History (1983), and their close relationship with the academic world and the arts, Kill Your Darlings (literature and writing), Dead Poets Society (poetry and theatre) and The Secret History (classical culture, Latin and Greek), help to clarify the aesthetic code of the community.
As the nostalgic community evolved and gained popularity, it was the users themselves who began to create guides or offer tips to help the new dark academics to enter more easily. These types of posts (figs.11 and 12) were extensive, offering everything from a list of the type of clothing associated with the aesthetic, to the set of literary or audio-visual works that could be consumed to enter into the subculture. The need to associate oneself with an aesthetic and implement it in everyday life acquired a normality in the younger generations.[39] The growing popularity in the use of social networks, and the striking emergence of numerous aesthetic communities can be seen through the data. But there are also accounts from young people that reinforce this fact, such as the articles by Post45[40] within the academic world.
Social networks are a focus of union and connection between subcultural groups, and their power is so great that it transcends virtual borders to host real-world practices. One earlier example is the hipster subculture, an urban tribe with antecedents in the 20th century, but which became popular in the 2000s and 2010s, who embraced nostalgic signifiers such as typewriters, polaroid cameras, vinyl records and vintage clothing, alongside earlier forms of blogging and online curation.[41] Because of its capacity for freedom, any aesthetic community of nostalgia can be taken as a way of life, one only must decide which one is right for oneself.
Through the analysis process, I discoveredthat users' interest in joining this community has been increasing since the end of 2019. Thanks to the survey conducted on the 1000 respondents between 2021 and 2022, I foundthat the years of highest discovery and community entry were: 2018 (117 users), 2019 (285 users), 2020 (316 users) and 2021 (102 users). Whilst, the social networks with the highest discovery rate were Tumblr (388 users) and Pinterest (248 users). Oneof the clearest and strongest influences on the rise of these types of nostalgic networking communities was the pandemic. Due to the context of social isolation, millions of users took refuge in social networks, this also favoured the popularisation of the social network TikTok in 2020[42] which led to a wider diffusion of aesthetics. Here, Idecided to ask respondents if they thought the pandemic had made Dark Academia more popular, and the results were as follows:
As can be seen, 83.2% (832 users) think that the situation caused by COVID-19 has favoured the increase in community recognition, compared to 16.8% (168 users). However, several respondents mentioned nostalgia when they were asked: ‘If you answered yes, why do you think so?’
More people clung to dark academia and other academia aesthetics because they embodied the nostalgia of academia at a time when access to academics was limited due to the shutting down of schools temporarily. (Female from the United States of America, aged 15-20, who discovered Dark Academia in 2020 via Pinterest).
Because people have time to isolate themselves from the society and have time to reflect upon the nostalgic memories. That kind of self-reflection was impossible when we were so busy with life before pandemic. (A person from Kachinland, aged 25-30, who discovered Dark Academia in 2019 through TikTok).
Like many other aesthetics, it is an escape from the current crisis, which in turn is a somewhat nostalgic idealisation. We associate this aesthetics with a better time where we could devote ourselves entirely to the studies that genuinely interest us, enjoy them and lead a life of learning. In my case, I like it because it makes me feel that my studies have not been completely in vain, that at least they have helped me to learn more about something that interests me and have given me the tools to do research (I am an unemployed historian). It may be the same for other university students without a job in their field. It's also a space where you don't feel judged for your more intellectual tastes or hobbies. (A woman from Spain, aged 25-30, who discovered Dark Academia in 2020 as a result of the Goblincore aesthetic).
Pandemic heavily triggered a feeling of nostalgia for "good old times" and DA aesthetics responses very well to this psychological need. (A woman from the Czech Republic, aged 20-25, who discovered Dark Academia in 2021 through YouTube Playlists).
More people online looking for something older and nostalgic. (A non-binary male from the United States, aged 15-20, who discovered Dark Academia in 2019 via Tumblr).
The audience research has shown that appeals to the search for nostalgic idealisation or escape from the material present are constant in these idealistic online subcultures. Most users tend to make use of these aesthetic communities of nostalgia to escape from current difficulties and enter into their ideal past, perhaps based on other historical periods, by evoking certain aesthetic aspects and implementing them in their daily lives.
Dark Academia: the essence of nostalgia
Having made an approximation of the evolutionary process of Dark Academia, the article will now analyse the nostalgic essence that the community evokes based on the practices that users value on Tumblr. As a result of this broad typology, and after having carried out an extensive cyber-ethnographic and folksonomic analysis, we could establish a typological classification of the nostalgic content shared by dark academics:
Projection of the nostalgic aesthetic community: users share posts that provide knowledge about the community. Practical guides are established, or tips are offered on how to get into Dark Academia. Likewise, dark academics themselves are critical of the aesthetic’s potentially exclusionary nature in regards to race, class and nation. For example, in reference to broadening horizons and breaking with Eurocentrism, or proposing second-hand outfits or elements so that anyone can feel involved, in the hope of breaking the class divide.
Mel Monier, PhD student and Rackham Merit Fellow in the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Michigan, in the Post45 special issue on Dark Academia, describes her experience of entering the online community during the pandemic, stressing that "joy is an assertion of Black people's humanity and dynamic emotionality, and digital spaces — such as the online communities built around dark academia — can offer Black women sites to reclaim their subjecthood and highlight Black joy and life."[43] Amatulla Mukadam, undergraduate student at NMIMS University, who first discovered the Studyblr community, gives her impressions of Dark Academia in Post45: “As a person of Indian origin, I watched dark academia unfold with a sense of awe and aspiration — and also with a persistent feeling of imminent dejection”.[44] Also, reinforcing Monier's words, Mukadam says: “Further, women, people of color and minorities can find a place within dark academia, if not within the actual academy (even if, as Mel Monier notes elsewhere in this cluster, the spaces of dark academia retain the potential to replicate the exclusionary logics of academia itself).”[45] Such research has helped to expand understanding of Dark Academia’s dual nature as both accessible and empowering, and potentially exclusionary and alienating.
Sentimental evocations: users express their feelings and moods. Mostly it is an allusion to times they consider better, related to a past not lived. In other words, to idealised times. As Olivia Stowell and Mitch Therieau, set out in their introduction to Post45's special issue on Dark Academia: “The further the idealized vision of campus life slips out of reach for academic workers and students alike, the more acolytes dark academia gathers."[46]
The artistic imaginary: in a similar way to the practices carried out by fandoms, users share content of those artistic works (literary, audio-visual, pictorial, sculptural, architectural, musical, etc.) that they associate with the nostalgic aesthetics of the community. In this case, let's remember that aesthetics are always open to revision, so users take it upon themselves to create more inclusive horizons.
The Tumblr posts in this section give us a revealing glimpse of the nostalgic aesthetic community of Dark Academia. We discovered that the favourite garments are knitted fabrics, wool or cotton, tweed blazers, pleated skirts, pleated trousers and, in terms of shoes, Oxford or moccasins stand out. Likewise, the most repetitive colours that complement the wardrobe are earth tones or neutrals, sometimes including checks or diamonds.
Beyond clothing, we are offered a set of activities that help to create a nostalgic aura in the day-to-day life of the person who practices them. These include making hot drinks such as coffee or infusions, reading books under the dim light of candles or the fireplace, exploring antique or second-hand bookshops to look for classic editions, strolling along cobbled streets at dawn or dusk, writing with a fountain pen or reading poetry on a stormy day, among many other things. These are generally solitary activities, which centre the introspection and aesthetic experience of the person who puts them into practice. It is worth noting that the great part of these romanticised rituals were adapted for times of confinement, as we can see in the publication by @abernathyvalois (figure 18).
On the other hand, sentimental evocations are the main form of emotional expression of dark academics. These can range from wishful thinking: "no YOU live in a society. I live in an 'abandoned' Victorian castle 'infested' with a vampires with a huge library containing first edition books that have been banned by the catholic church for immoral content" (@deadpoetwilde); to a feeling: "the inherent eroticism of the university library after dark" (@teamurder); or a contemporary trend: "she's a 10 but she reads classic literature to escape the modern world" (@nymphpens). While it is true that each text brings a personal version, most of them tend to have points in common. Escapism from the unsatisfied present, nostalgia for times not lived, idealisation of past eras and existential crises are the basis of this type of posts.
The allusions to visual works are fundamental to stipulate the fictional environment of the nostalgic aesthetic of Dark Academia. The films will be part of the users' cultural consumption and can serve as a complement in their sentimental evocations, as the dark academic may identify with the characters or authors of these works. Referring to audio-visual works, we find certain essential texts: Dead Poets Society (Peter Weir, 1989), Kill Your Darlings (John Krokidas, 2013), the Harry Potter saga (David Yates, Alfonso Cuarón, Mike Newell, Chris Columbus, 2001/2011), Maurice (James Ivory, 1987), The Dreamers (Bernardo Bertolucci, 2003) and Mona Lisa Smile (Mike Newell, 2003). It should be noted that depending on the time of year or associated fandoms, popularity will either increase or decrease. This is because aesthetics are also often related to the seasons. For example, Dark Academia is more associated with Autumn and Winter: the school year starts, the style of dress changes with shades associated with the summer period, the weather gets colder, Halloween is celebrated, etc.
In reference to literary works, the essential classic of the Dark Academic community is The Secret History (Donna Tartt, 1992). The Secret History fandom has a long tradition on the Tumblr platform and has grown over the years thanks to the author's new work, The Goldfinch, released in 2013. Her film production in 2019 also generated a surge in fandom. Although it is true that there are other essential works such as The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde, 1890). Nevertheless, breadth is clearly its essence, given that all types of consumption of classical literature are highlighted. From poetry, with authors such as Charles Baudelaire to Sylvia Plath, to Latin and Greek works, such as The Odyssey (Homer, VIII BC) or The Bacchae (Euripides, 409 BC); theatre is also fundamental, with Shakespeare standing out above other authors. Within this set of remarkable narratives, the presence of homoeroticism is significant, novels like Maurice (E.M. Forster, 1971) exemplify that existing union between homoeroticism, neo-Classicism and academia. Similarly, in contemporary literature we find The Song of Achilles (Madeline Miller, 2011), a partial retelling of Homer's Iliad narrated from the point of view of Patroclus, showing the homoerotic relationship between the two.
Other contemporary novels with Dark Academic characteristics are If we were villains (M. L. Rio, 2017) and The Atlas Six (Olivie Blake, 2020). The first novel is about a mysterious murder of a young man at the prestigious "Dellecher Classical Conservatory." The drama highlights Shakespeare's various plays while wrapping itself in an academic aesthetic, constantly appealing to an elite academic atmosphere. The second is a fantasy novel, where six magicians must compete for a place in the most important secret society in the world, the Alexandrian Society. The two share similarities with some of the aesthetics’ landmark works, such as The Secret History and Harry Potter, and also clearly maintain their relationship with academia and elitism. Moreover, the above-mentioned works belong to a Eurocentric milieu, they are notable for being set in elite schools, in both the UK and the US, where Eurocentric studies tend to be prominent, as seen in the focus on the works of Shakespeare. However, I have previously commented that the Dark Academics also try to break with this tradition by sharing literature from other cultures. For example, Chinese —The Peony Pavilion (Tang Xianzu, 1598)—, Persian —Shahnameh (Ferdousí, 1010)—, Indian —Aithihyamala (Kottarathil Sankunni)—, Mexican —El vampiro de la colonia Roma (Luis Zapata Quiroz, 1979)—, Malian —Sunjata (unknown)—, among others.
Finally, we find a breadth of artistic movements and periods in the selection of pictorial and sculptural works. The sculptural works of art most commonly shared by the Dark Academics are often characterised by the fact that they are made of marble. Periods such as Greek or Roman antiquity, the Renaissance and Neoclassicism are the most prominent. A fact that strengthens the often Eurocentric vision of the aesthetic. At the same time, the paintings cover many more periods,[47] though they tend to share visual signifiers from romantic landscapes featuring ruins to anatomical studies or vanitas. Mythological depictions, as for example the myth of Dionysus associated with The Secret History, and austere portraits of 18th and 19th century British personalities are also quite popular. Obviously, any engravings or sketches on literary works are welcome.
On the other hand, architecture is more restricted to certain styles, such as Gothic and neo-classical and collegiate locations in the Global North. The architectural landscape projected by university spaces such as Cambridge and Oxford in the U.K., and Harvard, in the U.S. stands out above any other place. The long historical tradition of these institutions has been marked by the presence of notable figures, many of them symbols for the dark academics. See: Oscar Wilde, E. M. Forster, Sylvia Plath, C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien, Lewis Carroll, etc. As we can assume, the academic landscape for the members of this community is the essential focus of their illusory universe. The popularity of this group of universities is enhanced by the filming of some of the aforementioned literary adaptations. —Harry Potter, Maurice and Brideshead Revisited—, creating a visual imaginary of direct allusion. Likewise, in the British countryside or cities where time seems to have stood still, such as Edinburgh, we can find settings that served as inspiration to create the magical world of Harry Potter. All of these spaces reflect the locations to which the dark academics are attracted to and creatively embody online.
To support the world-building material provided by Tumblr, the survey’s data helped to consolidate the essence of the community in order to understand what dark academics were really looking for when they decided to become part of it. Thanks to the question, "When you think of Dark Academia what comes to mind? (Places, objects, sounds, smells, sensations... it can be anything)", I was able to discover the importance given to sensations. The majority referred to certain objects, places or actions that provided them with that experience of approaching nostalgic aesthetics. Some of the most notable are books (540 users), bookshops (242 users), the sound of rain (135 users), classical music (102 users), coffee drinking (249 users), tea drinking (115 users), the use of candles (196 users) or the university environment (106 users). It is worth noting that several respondents alluded to the feeling of nostalgia associated with the Dark Academia and provoked by the performance of certain practices or the consumption of such objects:
That vintage aesthetic and nostalgic feeling of wearing an older cloth or reading an old book. (A man from Romania aged 10-20, who discovered Dark Academia in 2016 through the internet).
Dark browns, dark wood, smell of wood and firewood, gorgeous hardcover books, academic papers, fall and winter, long wool coats, boots, turtle necks, glasses, tea, coffee, old architecture, libraries, warm feelings of nostalgia and longing, feelings of contentedness, quirks, messes, darker shades of lipstick, gold accents, dark greens, and a sense of cozy comfort. (A woman from Canada aged 25-30, who discovered Dark Academia between 2010-2015 via Tumblr).
I think of the pursuit of knowledge, no matter the cost. That is what comes to mind as the inherent idea and reason behind dark academia. After that I find myself gravitating towards the style (tweed, suits, leather bags) and a vague feeling of longing for a time long gone. (A man from the Netherlands aged 15-20, who discovered Dark Academia in 2018 via Tumblr).
The use of the survey as a methodological technique has facilitated our understanding of the nostalgic essence of Dark Academia. Nostalgia is sustained through the existing values of academia and knowledge accumulation, which take on a new meaning and gain greater popularity due to confinement during the Covid-19 pandemic. The idealisation of a classical and erudite past fosters the importance of an aesthetic of academic elitism that is set against an arrested and ever accessible technological present. Through these social networks, a younger generation feel the need to foster new identities through the humanities and classical studies, consuming often Eurocentric literary classics of past centuries and losing themselves in images of academic places that evoke an idealised past they have not experienced for themselves.
Conclusion
By virtue of all the information gathered and analysed for this article, it can be affirmed that nostalgia is no longer wholly reserved for virtual practices but goes much further, with online users embracing what interests them and implementing it in their daily lives. The pandemic provided an unexpected twist to our lives, bringing them to a halt practically overnight, so that society had to look for alternative ways to alleviate its needs — social, academic, personal, and psychological. Jameson, in his study on postmodernism and consumer society, concluded that human beings were becoming unable to focus on our own present: "We had become incapable of achieving aesthetic representations of our own current experience."[48]As is well known, nostalgia can provide a sense of stability, especially in turbulent times of change.[49] This is why the dark academics, like many other young people who entered other aesthetic communities, used Dark Academia to escape the present reality and express their nostalgic emotions for the past. Consequently, this community, which had emerged only a few years before, began to take shape, establishing an identity of its own and a social identity that was linked to the times of yesteryear where Oxbridge culture was a benchmark. The limitations around race, gender and social status that this kind of cultural context encompasses are well known, but dark academics are aware of these concerns and are trying to break through these limitations and expand its canon of reference.
This analysis has provided us with new knowledge to understand the relevance of digital environments in the development of nostalgia practices. The results show that the past is invading the present now more than ever. This is a past not lived directly, but instead creatively idealised by users who wish to abstract themselves from their present, making use of social networks. Therefore, dark academics, through artistic objects, clothing, locations, or activities, seek to enter into a lived aesthetic experience in order to escape from the present, and find a new identity and online community in an imagined past. This research therefore encourages further reflection on the importance of digitally enabled nostalgia in these new aesthetic communities that have grown in recent years on social networks.
Footnotes
1 Also labelled as centennials.
2 For an understanding of nostalgia for the past in today's society see: Simon Reynolds. Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past. (London: FABER & FABER, 2010).
3 Helga Mariel Soto. “Estéticas en Tik Tok: entre lo histórico y lo digital.” Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseño y Comunicación (2022): 199-209.
4 See: Reynolds. Retromania.
5Olivia Stowell and Mitch Therieau, ‘Introduction’, Dark Academia, Post45, 2022, Available at: https://post45.org/sections/contemporaries-essays/dark-academia/ [ Accessed January 20, 2022]
6 Quoted in: Janelle L. Wilson, Nostalgia – Sanctuary of Meaning (Pennsylvania: Bucknell University Press, 2005), 21.
7 Willis H. McCann, “Nostalgia: a review of the literature.” Psychological Bulletin 38 (1941): 165-182.
8 Fred Davis, Yearning for Yesterday: A Sociology of Nostalgia. (New York: The Free Press, 1979).
9 Davis. Yearning for Yesterday, 106.
10 Davis. Yearning for Yesterday, 106.
11 Jenny Gregory, “Connecting with the past through social media: the ‘Beautiful buildings and cool places Perth has lost’ Facebook group.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 21 (2015): 28.
12 Russell W. Belk, “The Role of Possessions in Constructing and Maintaining a Sense of Past.” ACR North American Advances (1990): 669-676.
Joel Best and E. E. Nelson. “Nostalgia and discontinuity: A test of the Davis hypothesis.” Sociology and social research (1985): 221-233.
13 Krystine Irene Batcho, “Nostalgia: A Psychological Perspective.” Perceptual and Motor Skills 80 (1995): 131 - 143.
Vincent J. Pascal, David Sprott and Darrel D. Muehling. “The Influence of Evoked Nostalgia on Consumers' Responses to Advertising: An Exploratory Study.” Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising 24 (2002): 39 - 47.
14 Susan L. Holak, and William J. Havlena. “Nostalgia: An Exploratory Study of Themes and Emotions in the Nostalgic Experience”. Advances in Consumer Research 19, (1992): 380-387.
15 Fredic Jameson, Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. (Durham: Duke University Press, 1991), 67.
16 Holak, and William “Feelings, Fantasies, and Memories” 217-226.
17 Russell Belk, “The Role of Possessions” 669-676.
18 Global Web Index. “Connecting the dots Consumer trends that will shape 2020”.
19 M. Pickering, M., and E. Keightley, “The Modalities of Nostalgia”. Current Sociology 54, no.6, (2006): 919–941, accessed August 8, 2022, doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0011392106068458
20 Ryan Lizardi, Nostalgic Generations and Media: Perception of Time and Available Meaning. (London: Lexington Books, 2017)
21Hend Suliman Al-Khalifa, and Hugh C. Davis. “Measuring the Semantic Value of Folksonomies.” Innovations in Information Technology (2006): 1-5.
Jennifer Trant, “Studying Social Tagging and Folksonomy: A Review and Framework.” J. Digit. Inf. 10 (2009): 2-44.
Michele Zappavigna, Searchable Talk: Hashtags and Social Media. Metadiscourse. (London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018).
22 Lizardi. Nostalgic Generations and Media.
23 Thomas Vander Wal, “Folksonomy Coinage and Definition.” 2007. Accessed July 8, 2020. VanderWal.net.
24 Vander Wal,. “Folksonomy Coinage and Definition”.
25 Diego E. Vintimilla-León and Angel Torres-Toukoumidis. "Covid-19 y TikTok. Análisis De La Folksonomía Social." Revista Ibérica De Sistemas e Tecnologias De Informação (2021): 15-26.
26 Sergio Davalos, et al. “'The good old days': An examination of nostalgia in Facebook posts.” Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud. 83 (2015): 87.
27 Davalos, et al. “'The good old days”, 83-93.
28 Han Lin and Lin Qiu. “Two sites, two voices: linguistic differences between Facebook status updates and tweets" In: Cross-Cultural Design. Cultural Differences in Everyday Life, Edited by P. L.P Rau (Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, 2013): 432-440.
29 Jan Plamper, “THE HISTORY OF EMOTIONS: AN INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM REDDY, BARBARA ROSENWEIN, AND PETER STEARNS.” History and Theory 49 (2010): 252.
30 Plamper. “THE HISTORY OF EMOTIONS”, 253.
31 Allison McCracken, “Tumblr Youth Subcultures and Media Engagement.” Cinema Journal 57, (2017): 153.
32 Helga Mariel Soto, “Estéticas en Tik Tok: entre lo histórico y lo digital.” Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseño y Comunicación (2022): 199-209.
33 Ellis cited in: Soto. “Estéticas en Tik Tok”, 200.
34 Soto, “Estéticas en Tik Tok”, 200.
35 Louisa Ellen Stein, Millennial Fandom: Television Audiences in the Transmedia Age. (Iowa: university of Iowa Press, 2015) 158.
36 Hallett and Kristen. “Ethnographic Research in a Cyber Era”, 306.
37 John Beattie, Other Cultures. Aims, Methods and Achievements in Social Anthropology. (New York: The Free Press, 1964).
38 Lucy Bennett, “The Ethics, Design, and Use of Surveys in Fan Studies.” In: The Routledge Companion to Media Fandom, Edited By: Click, Melissa and Suzanne Scott 26-44. (London: Routledge, 2018).
39 Stowell and Therieau, Introduction.
40 Ibid.
41 See: Wes Hill, Art after the Hipster: Identity Politics, Ethics and Aesthetics. (London: Palgrave, 2017).
42 Soto. “Estéticas en Tik Tok”.
43 Mel Monier, “Too dark for Dark Academia”. Post45. (2022). Available at: https://post45.org/2022/03/too-dark-for-dark-academia/Accessed January 20, 2022.
44 Amatulla Mukadam, “A Touch of the Picturesque” Post45. (2022). Available at: https://post45.org/2022/03/a-touch-of-the-picturesque/Accessed January 20, 2022.
45 Mukadam, “A Touch”.
46 Stowell, and Therieau, “Introduction”.
47 It is easy to find publications from periods such as Renaissance, Baroque, Rococo, Neoclassicism, Romanticism, Symbolism, Pre-Raphaelite, as well as contemporary art referencing these periods.
48 Jameson. “Postmodernism And Consumer Society”; 6.
49 Min Kyung Han, and George E. Newman. “Seeking Stability: Consumer Motivations for Communal Nostalgia.” Journal of Consumer Psychology (2021): 77-86.
Soto. “Estéticas en Tik Tok”, 199-209.
Ralph Harper, “Nostalgia: An Existential Exploration of Longing and Fulfillment in the Modern Age”. The Press of Western Reserve University, 1966.
Bibliography
Al-Khalifa, H.S. and Davis. H. C. “Measuring the Semantic Value of Folksonomies.” 2006 Innovations in Information Technology (2006): 1-5.
Batcho, K. I. “Nostalgia: A Psychological Perspective.” Perceptual and Motor Skills 80 (1995): 131 - 143.
Beattie, J. Other Cultures. Aims, Methods and Achievements in Social Anthropology. New York: The Free Press, 1964.
Belk, R. W. “The Role of Possessions in Constructing and Maintaining a Sense of Past.” ACR North American Advances (1990): 669-676.
Best, J. and Nelson. E. E. “Nostalgia and discontinuity: A test of the Davis hypothesis.” Sociology and social research (1985): 221-233.
Bennett, L. “The Ethics, Design, and Use of Surveys in Fan Studies.” In: The Routledge Companion to Media Fandom, Edited By Click, Melissa and Suzanne Scott 26-44. London: Routledge, 2018.
Davalos, S., et al. “'The good old days': An examination of nostalgia in Facebook posts.” Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud. 83 (2015): 83-93.
Davis, F. Yearning for Yesterday: A Sociology of Nostalgia. New York: The Free Press, 1979.
Ellis, R. cited in: Soto, Helga Mariel. “Estéticas en Tik Tok: entre lo histórico y lo digital.” Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseño y Comunicación (2022): 200.
Global Web Index. “Connecting the dots Consumer trends that will shape 2020”.
Gregory, J. “Connecting with the past through social media: the ‘Beautiful buildings and cool places Perth has lost’ Facebook group.” International Journal of Heritage Studies 21 (2015): 22-45.
Hallett, R. E. and Barber, K. “Ethnographic Research in a Cyber Era.” Journal of Contemporary Ethnography 43 (2014): 306 - 330.
Han, M. K. and Newman., G. E. “Seeking Stability: Consumer Motivations for Communal Nostalgia.” Journal of Consumer Psychology (2021): 77-86.
Harper, Ralph. Nostalgia: An Existential Exploration of Longing and Fulfillment in the Modern Age. The Press of Western Reserve University, 1966.
Hill, W. Art after the Hipster: Identity Politics, Ethics and Aesthetics. London: Palgrave, 2017.
Holak, S. L. and Havlena, W. J., “Feelings, Fantasies, and Memories: An Examination of the Emotional Components of Nostalgia.” Journal of Business Research 42 (1998): 217-226.Belk, Russell W.. “The Role of Possessions in Constructing and Maintaining a Sense of Past.” ACR North American Advances (1990): 669-676.
Holak, S. L. and Havlena, W. J., “Nostalgia: an Exploratory Study of Themes and Emotions in the Nostalgic Experience.” ACR North American Advances (1992): 380-387.
Jameson, F. “Postmodernism And Consumer Society”. In: The Cultural Turn: Selected Writings On The Postmodern, 1983-1998. Fredic Jameson, (1998): 9-10.
Jameson, F. Postmodernism, or The Cultural Logic of Late Capitalism. Durham: Duke University Press, 1991.
Lin, H. andQiu, L. “Two sites, two voices: linguistic differences between Facebook status updates and tweets" In: Cross-Cultural Design. Cultural Differences in Everyday Life, Edited by Rau, P.L.P. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg (2013): 432-440.
Lizardi, R. Nostalgic Generations and Media: Perception of Time and Available Meaning. London: Lexington Books, 2007.
McCann, W. H. “Nostalgia: A Descriptive and Comparative Study”. Journal of Genetic Psychology 62 (1943): 97-104.
McCann, W. H. “Nostalgia: a review of the literature.” Psychological Bulletin 38 (1941): 165-182.
McCracken, A. “Tumblr Youth Subcultures and Media Engagement.” Cinema Journal. 57, (2017) 151-161.
Merchant, A., LaTour, K. A. and Ford, J. B.. “How Strong is the Pull of the Past? Measuring Personal Nostalgia Evoked by Advertising.” ODU Digital Commons (2013): 150—165.
Monier, M. “Too dark for Dark Academia”. Post45. (2022).
Mukadam, A. “A Touch of the Picturesque”. Post45. (2022).
Nietzsche, F. Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Pascal, V. J., Sprott, D. and Muehling, D. D., “The Influence of Evoked Nostalgia on Consumers' Responses to Advertising: An Exploratory Study.” Journal of Current Issues & Research in Advertising 24 (2002): 39 - 47.
Pickering, M. and Keightley, E. “The Modalities of Nostalgia.” Current Sociology. 54, no.6, (2006): 919–941.
Plamper, J. “THE HISTORY OF EMOTIONS: AN INTERVIEW WITH WILLIAM REDDY, BARBARA ROSENWEIN, AND PETER STEARNS.” History and Theory 49 (2010): 237-265.
Reynolds, S. Retromania: Pop Culture's Addiction to Its Own Past. (London: FABER & FABER, 2010).
Sedikides, C., Wildschut, T. Arndt, J. and Routledge, C. “Nostalgia Past, Present, and Future.” Current Directions in Psychological Science 17 (2008): 304-307.
Soto, H. M. “Estéticas en Tik Tok: entre lo histórico y lo digital.” Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios de Diseño y Comunicación (2022): 199-209.
Stein, L. E. Millennial Fandom: Television Audiences in the Transmedia Age. Iowa: university of Iowa Press, 2015.
Stowell, O. and Therieau, M. “Introduction”. Post45. (2022).
Trant, J. “Studying Social Tagging and Folksonomy: A Review and Framework.” J. Digit. Inf. 10 (2009): 2-44.
Vander Wal, T. “Folksonomy Coinage and Definition.” 2007, VanderWal.net.
Vintimilla-León, Diego, E. and Angel Torres-Toukoumidis. "Covid-19 y TikTok. Análisis De La Folksonomía Social." Revista Ibérica De Sistemas e Tecnologias De Informação (2021): 15-26.
Wilson, J. L. "REMEMBER WHEN...": A Consideration of the Concept of Nostalgia”. A Review of General Semantics 56 (1999): 296-304.
Youn, S. and Jin. S. V. “Reconnecting with the past in social media: The moderating role of social influence in nostalgia marketing on Pinterest.” Journal of Consumer Behaviour 16 (2017): 565-576.
Zappavigna, M. Searchable Talk: Hashtags and Social Media. Metadiscourse. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2018.
Author Biography
Lara López Millán is a PhD student in Art History at the Universitat de València. Her research focuses on the field of visual aesthetics of social networks, film theories and posthumanism. During her career, she has published in the audiovisual field and has participated in several national and international conferences. The thesis she is working on focuses on a new subculture and its visual aesthetics that has gained popularity on social networks during the pandemic, the Dark Academia. She is also currently part of the editorial committee of Cuadernos de ALEPH.
Comments