Agnes Arnold-Forster, a medical historian and author of 'Nostalgia: A History of a Dangerous Emotion,' joins nostalgia researcher Krystine Batcho, who created the Nostalgia Inventory, and Tobias Becker from the Free University of Berlin, author of 'Yesterday.' They explore nostalgia’s evolution from a malady to a source of comfort, the role of scents in memory, and its implications in politics. The conversation also touches on how the digital age enhances our longing for the past, revealing nostalgia's complex emotional landscape.
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insights INSIGHT
Nostalgia's Evolution Over Centuries
Nostalgia began as a deadly disease of homesickness in the 17th century.
It evolved into a benign, wistful longing for the past by the early 20th century.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Toothpaste Unlocks Vivid Memories
Listener Ruta's toothpaste smell triggered vivid memories of 1989 America behind the Iron Curtain.
Such sensory triggers can evoke detailed and emotional past experiences.
insights INSIGHT
Bittersweet Nature of Nostalgia
Nostalgia uniquely blends bitter and sweet emotions into a bittersweet longing.
This explains why nostalgia can feel both joyful and melancholic simultaneously.
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This graphic adaptation of Marcel Proust's 'In Search of Lost Time' presents the first volume, 'Swann's Way', in a compressed and visually engaging format. The adaptation, likened to a 'piano reduction of an orchestral score', retains the fundamental architecture and themes of Proust’s work, including time, art, and the elusiveness of memory. Stéphane Heuet's detailed illustrations bring to life the narrator Marcel's childhood memories in Combray, capturing the humor, wit, and memorable characters of Proust's original text. This adaptation is designed to make Proust's work more accessible while maintaining its essence and beauty[3][5][4].
Nostalgia, A History of a Dangerous Emotion
Nostalgia, A History of a Dangerous Emotion
Agnes Arnold-Forster
Swann's Way
Marcel Proust
Swann's Way is the first part of Marcel Proust's seven-volume masterpiece, 'In Search of Lost Time'. It introduces the narrator's childhood memories and his fascination with the life of Charles Swann, a family friend. The novel delves into the complexities of love and jealousy through Swann's relationship with Odette de Crécy, while also exploring the narrator's own experiences and reflections on art and society.
Nostalgia is one of those complicated emotions: we long to be transported to a place or moment in the past that we have loved but at the same time feel sad that it has gone forever. It is also a bit of a slippery intellectual concept: regarded as a malady when the term was first coined in the 17th century, nostalgia is now thought to be benign or even mildly therapeutic. And beyond personal recollections, business uses it to sell all manner of things and some politicians skilfully deploy it to hide their real objectives. So what actually is nostalgia?
Iszi Lawrence explores the past and present of nostalgia with Dr. Agnes Arnold-Forster , author of Nostalgia: A History of a Dangerous Emotion, Prof. Krystine Batcho who devised the Nostalgia Inventory and Dr. Tobias Becker author of Yesterday, A New History of Nostalgia. We also hear WS listeners’ views on nostalgia.
(Photo: Vintage photographs with a dried rose. Credit: Alicia Llop/Getty Images)
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