Social Trauma, Nostalgia and Mourning in the Immigration Experience

The sociology of nostalgia

Nostalgia is not a conventional topic of sociological analysis, and sociologists writing on nostalgia often rely on insights on the topic generated in neighboring disciplines. However, there is in fact relevant sociological work on nostalgia conducted by sociologists, and this article reviews is. Illustative examples of sociological topics relating to nostalgia are as follows: nostalgia and the past, examining how historical recollection or reconstruction and memory shape nostalgia, nostalgia and experiences of personal and cultural loss; nostalgia and individual or collective identity; nostalgia and social change; and nostalgia and politics.

Nostalgia, and what it used to be

As the cliché has it, nostalgia ain't what it used to be. Except this cliché is true: nostalgia hasn't always been the relatively benign, comforting longing for a lost time which we know today; it used to be a dangerous disease, a deadly form of homesickness. This article traces the surprising history of nostalgia from its origins in the late Seventeenth Century to the present. It both sketches the different ways in which nostalgia has been experienced over the past three centuries, and reviews existing literature that has sought to grasp this protean emotion across the disciplines. As the article shows, contrary to our presentist common sense, when it comes to our affective lives, history matters.