A Phenomenology of Nostalgia
Overview
Over the last two decades, research on nostalgia has flourished from across several disciplines, especially psychology (Routledge 2016; Wildschut et al. 2006), literature (Niemeyer 2014), and media (Kay et al. 2017). Key issues emerging from this research include the relation between nostalgia, memory, and history (Boym 2001), the role home plays in the conception of nostalgia (Duyvendak 2011), and the link between nostalgia and health (Sedikides et al. 2016). In tandem with this research, nostalgia has become a central trope in contemporary society, as much evident in right-wing populism as it is in current culture (Becker 2018).
Despite its ubiquitous presence in both a theoretical and cultural context, nostalgia is poorly understood. Beyond the contemporary characterization of nostalgia as a positive emotion‖ (Sedikides et al 2008), there is little critical discussion about key conceptual issues such as what kind of subjective state nostalgia is, whether there is a specific object of nostalgia, and to what extent nostalgia is related to homesickness.
Funded by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF project number P33428) with Dr. Dylan Trigg as the PI, the aim of the project is to respond to these oversights using a methodology, which combines a critical phenomenological perspective with a focus on how nostalgia has been shaped historically.
Latest News
New publications (2023-24):
– The Routledge Handbook of Nostalgia (co-edited with Tobias Becker, forthcoming in 2024)
– "From Description to Transformation. A Deconstructivist Investigation of a Phenomenological Method", Puncta. Journal for Critical Phenomenology. (2023) (Vol. 6.2), p. 81-98. DOI : https://doi.org/10.25364/PJCP.v6i2.6
New events:
– Philosophy of Nostalgia (Organised by Leyla Sophie Gleissner & Dylan Trigg), April 12th, 2024, University of Vienna.
– Nostalgia and Aesthetics (Organised by Leyla Sophie Gleissner & Dylan Trigg), September 1st, 2023, University of Vienna.
– Surviving Translation. On Being Between Worlds (Organised by Leyla Sophie Gleissner & Manu Sharma), 18th of August 2023, University of Vienna.
– Critical Temporalities (Organised by Leyla Sophie Gleissner, PJ Gorre & Dylan Trigg), 24th of March 2023, online. In collaboration with the philosophy department at The New School, NYC. More here
–Nostalgia Between Phenomenology and Psychoanalysis (Organised by Leyla Sophie Gleissner & Dylan Trigg), 20th of May 2022, The Sigmund Freud Museum, Vienna. Please register for the in-person event here. For the Zoom event see. More here.
– Corps à (re)construire (Organised by Leyla Sophie Gleissner & Flora Löffelmann), 10th of December 2021, online. More here
– Corps à (re)construire (Organised by Leyla Sophie Gleissner & Flora Löffelmann), 1st and 2nd of October 2021, École normale supérieure, Cinéma La Clef, La Sorbonne, Paris. More here and here.
New articles and chapters (2021-22)
– Gleissner, L.S. "Silences de l'autre. Vers une éthique du poème", Silence = Violence? Bellini, Anna Paola/Parapar, Cristina (Eds.). Paris 2022: L’Harmattan, 110-121. More here
– Trigg, D. “Bachelard and the Sublime Atmosphere of Nostalgia,” Sublimierung: Transformationen von Materialität in der Kunst nach dem Modernismus. Zeitschrift für Ästhetik und Allgemeine Kunstwissenschaft (ZÄK). Berger, Christian/Schlitte, Annika (Eds.) (2021). More here.
Media coverage and public philosophy
Gleissner, L.S.
– Podcast on silence and happiness by the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum Dresden (07/07/2023). More info here.
– Panel on testimony and Intersectional Feminism at Institut français Mainz (08/03/2023). More info here.
– Article on Goliarda Sapienza for "10 nach 8" / ZEIT Online (10/02/2023). More info here.
– Interview with Natalie Wynn for Philosophie Magazin Germany and France (05/01/2023). More info here.
Next Event
Philosophies of Nostalgia - April 12th, 2024
Venue: Hörsaal 3C, Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, Universitätsstraße 7, A-1010 Vienna
Programme:
11:00: Welcome
11:15-12:00: Manu Sharma (University of Vienna), "Monolingual Slippages: The Coloniality of Hindu Right Wing Nostalgia."
12:00-12:45: Christina Schües (Universität zu Lübeck), "Existential negation and (dis-)placement. Eine zeitphänomenologische Perspektive."
LUNCH BREAK (90 min)
14:15-15:00: Giacomo Croci (Medizinische Hochschule Brandenburg ), "Nostalgia as a Paradigm for Social Ontology."
15:00-15:45: Michela Summa (University of Würzburg), “Ambiguities of nostalgia: In praise of imperfection.”
Coffee break
16:15-17:15: Tobias Becker (FU Berlin): "Yesterday: A New History of Nostalgia." [Book discussion]
17:15: Conclusion