The Politics of Nostalgia: Postmodernism, Capitalism and Repetition in Tao Lin’s Taipei

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ABSTRACT Twenty-first century culture is characterized by theories of succession connected to digital technology. These range from post-postmodern definitions of an “after” postmodernism, to attempts to imagine what a postcapitalist society might look like. In contrast, Tao Lin’s Taipei presents a seemingly counter-intuitive depiction of postmodern esthetics, using repetition to challenge contemporary theories of succession. I argue the novel’s apparently nostalgic depiction of postmodernism provides a vital way of considering the contemporary political function of postmodern esthetics through repetition. Textual repetitions of nineties grunge references, combined with blank fictional esthetics, generate a jarring dislocation of chronological time. Repetition depicts a disorientation characterized by postmodern esthetics, combined with a disorientation produced through their repetition in Taipei. The hopelessness Lin’s characters experience is not only articulated through postmodern esthetics, but is further intensified by their untimely repetition. The apparent displacement of postmodern esthetics within a digital context presents an elongated post-Cold War consumer capitalist culture, challenging theories of succession to fully account for a partially forgotten postmodern past. Taipei presents repetition as a way of accounting for the contradictory relation to postmodernism in contemporary American culture. Repetition therefore provides a politicized way of critically and textually navigating contemporary digital culture through postmodern esthetics.