Ambiguous longings: Nostalgia as the interplay among self, time and world

Abstract

This article explores nostalgia’s multi-facetted character by linking its discursive and experiential dimensions. In a first move, I highlight its importance as an analytical category that grew out of a very particular history of knowledge. Focusing on a specific case that played a crucial role in the development of two distinct phases of nostalgia as a concept, I show how it has become inextricably linked to ideas of displacement and loss. In a second move, I juxtapose this metaphorical treatment of loss and nostalgia with a focus on the lifeworld of one individual who has experienced physical displacement. In focusing on two particular nostalgic moments in her life, I sketch the contours of an anthropological phenomenology of nostalgia.