Historic enchantments – materializing nostalgia

Abstract

Efforts to remedy existential anxiety and the sense of ‘homelessness’ permeating modern life invariably invoke ideas and practices swirling around dwelling and nostalgia. Geographies probing the materiality of loss and memory have elaborated and critiqued nostalgia in both regressive and progressive postures. We argue that amorphous and sensual qualities of nostalgia make it a propulsive force in dwelling. Moving beyond nostalgia as a representation of, or personal longing for, ‘the past’ or ‘home’, we engage historic practice as transpersonal, affective currents coursing through bodies, objects, and things. Nostalgia is an enchantment with distance that cannot be bridged. We explore nostalgic distance vis-a-vis practices in residential historic preservation in the Coronado district in Phoenix, Arizona. Practice, performance, and materiality of historic inhabitation illuminate nostalgic distance as an undertow in the making of historic sensibilities, subjectivities, and places. The elusiveness of nostalgia whispers enchantments, engendering attentiveness to what is near, to sensing closely. Nostalgic practice, performance, and materiality give rise to an everyday aesthetic of pastness, an embodied ethics of care rather than strict adherence to historic preservation codes and guidelines. We contribute to rethinking nostalgia and residential historic preservation as modes of sensing in which all bodies, objects, and things – human–nonhuman, animate–inanimate – have capacities to affect and to be affected.

A longing for the natural past: unexplored benefits and impacts of a nostalgic approach toward restoration in ecology

“…Although we agree that “[w]e cannot go back to our nostalgic past” (Choi ), we contend that restoration practitioners can use the emotional benefits from a nostalgic approach to empower restoration objectives of future projects. Rather than insinuate that a “romance for the past” and resiliency are antagonizing concepts (Hart et al ), we can view romance (an approach to add meaning and value, see Kitson & McHugh ) and resiliency (the application goal) as going hand‐in‐hand, which can lead to healthier, better functioning ecosystems managed for multiple physical (Vale ) and psychological (Sedikides & Wildschut ) purposes in the future. By doing so, restoration ecologists can use motivation generated from nostalgic emotions and knowledge from historical ecology and ecosystem modeling to balance past longings with future improvements to restore degraded ecosystems.…”

Experiencias nostálgicas de migrantes mexicanos en Nueva York

“…Plantea así que las nostalgias contemporáneas se deben entender como una serie de migraciones cruzadas. En un sentido similar, Wilson (2015) plantea que los sujetos ejercemos agencia a partir de los modos en que (re)construimos el pasado y asignamos significado a las emociones nostálgicas, así como aquellas ancladas en el espacio y que, dependiendo de la manera en la que se recuerde, la nostalgia se materializa (Kitson y McHugh, 2015).…”

La nostalgie comme catégorie géographique : une proposition théorique

“…Sous cet angle, elle est une force affective permettant le dialogue entre les matérialités et le monde des sens et des perceptions. C'est pourquoi certains auteurs, tels que Kitson et McHugh (), la définissent comme un courant transpersonnel et affectif qui se ferait à travers le corps, les objets et les choses, c'est‐à‐dire comme un désir diffus qui lierait les matérialités au monde sensible des perceptions. Il s'agirait pour ces auteurs d'un désir pour une séparation insurmontable entre le maintenant et l'avant, entre la proximité et le lointain.…”