Nostalgia for the future: Retrofuturism in Enterprise

This article explores how retrofuturism — a fascination with past visions of the future — is used to allegorise problems of national identity and social difference in primetime US television in response to cultural and industrial change. Using Enterprise (US, UPN, 2002-5) as a case study, the article argues that retrofuturism can be a problematic and conservative discourse. Enterprise offers an imaginative working through of the problems of national identity generated by the response to 9/11. However, by appealing to previous myths of national identity and visions of the future, the series produces a retrograde vision of the future and of the American nation.