2. Nostalgia and the Turbulence of Times

Abstract

The concept of nostalgia has an invaluable advantage: In contrast to other cultural concepts, it has an exact date of birth. It was in 1688 when the medic Johannes Hofer published a thesis in which he described an illness he termed with the neologism “nostalgia.” But instead of following the academic and larger cultural discourses that evolved from this starting point until the present, the question that deserves some attention is which temporal setting goes along with the concept of nostalgia. Most of the experts on nostalgia as a sickness during the last three and a half centuries did not diagnose themselves but others, quite often patients from rural areas who had to leave home to work abroad, where they became nostalgic. With this diagnosis these experts also established a certain time‐model, because they separated a “modern” time‐model of irreversibility from a “nostalgic” time‐model of reversibility. If we take a closer look at the nostalgia diagnosis and its consequences, we might also gain some ideas for our thinking about the theory of history.

Evoking Nostalgia: Graffiti as Medium in Urban Space

“…According to Landwehr (2018), individuals often experience a sense of nostalgia, characterized by wistful longing for the past and a desire to revisit more favorable moments. This nostalgic sentiment is often portrayed in warm sepia tones, evoking feelings of comfort and yearning for one’s youth or the positive aspects of days gone by.…”

“…In addition, studies have shown that nostalgia is not just a personal sentiment but also a social and cultural phenomenon (Meng, 2020;Sedikides & Wildschut, 2023). Landwehr's (2018) argument gives the specific framework in this article of nostalgia, which is an active engagement with time, producing a distinct temporal experience. It goes beyond simply replicating the past and instead involves a complex interplay between different temporal dimensions.…”

“…Landwehr’s (2018) argument gives the specific framework in this article of nostalgia, which is an active engagement with time, producing a distinct temporal experience. It goes beyond simply replicating the past and instead involves a complex interplay between different temporal dimensions.…”

As Últimas Testemunhas de Svetlana Aleksiévitch

“…(Aleksiévitch, 2018: 34, entrevista com Vássia Khárevski ) A palavra nostalgia foi cunhada no século 17 pelo médico Johannes Hofer a partir de duas palavras gregas -nostos (voltar para casa) e algia (dor) -, para designar uma doença que afetava soldados e trabalhadores distantes de suas terras (Boym, 2001). Dois séculos depois, o conceito perdeu seu significado médico e passou de uma saudade da pátria para uma saudade do passado (Landwehr, 2018). Uma mudança de deslocamento espacial para deslocamento temporal (Keightley & Pickering, 2006), ao se tornar associada ao oposto de modernidade e progresso.…”

Repeating beats: The return of rave, memories of joy and nostalgia between the afterglow and the hangover

“…On the one hand, the sweetness of nostalgia consists in its rebellion against the linear movement of time. If, on the dominant temporal consciousness of modernity, time is irreversible, then nostalgia suggests the possibility of reversal; the nostalgic asserts a continuity between past and present, upholding a back and forth movement between the two temporal realms (Landwehr, 2018). On the other hand, while nostalgia has sometimes 'caressed the scars of history', there 'can be no nostalgia without the sense of irreversibility' (Fritzsche, 2001(Fritzsche, : 1595.…”