Can we queer nostalgia? Fabulating more just futures through the speculative arts

In this article, the authors draw on queer theory and their speculative artistic practice to imagine and activate nostalgia otherwise. They analyse a song they composed about the unconventional Doctor Who character Alpha Centauri to explore how it might queer the temporal contour of nostalgia’s affect. Rather than invoking myths about the past to secure an oppressive future, as they argue normative nostalgia does, they take up José Muñoz’s (2009) account of queerness as a “forward-dawning futurity.” They consider how both the songwriting process and the song itself might reorient nostalgia’s affect toward a queerer, more hopeful future-past for Alpha Centauri and, hopefully, for themselves. Through analysing this work, the authors activate the concept of homo-nostalgia to indicate the twin pull of nostalgia towards both homogeneity and (homo)normativity. Their findings suggest that it might be impossible to queer nostalgia, while still keeping a glimmer of hope that things could have been otherwise.