Memories for sale: Nostalgia and the construction of identity in Old Pasadena

The contemporary moment is characterized by a deep desire for memory. The shift of identity from traditional familial, community and work structures to “lifestyle” along with the fragmentation and globalization of postmodern culture engenders in many a profoundly felt need for the past. The loss of a culture of memory has been met by the rise of “memory places.” This essay argues that landscapes of memory like Old Pasadena respond to the fragmentation with memory created by contemporary culture. Classical and Renaissance rhetorical concepts provide the materials necessary for a critical analysis of contemporary landscapes of memory. The engagement between traditional rhetorical concepts and postmodern problems leads to a retheorizing and reevaluation of memory, invention and style, where memory becomes a grammar for the rhetorical performance of the self.