The neologism nostalgia appeared in the scientific literature at the end of the 16th century. Initially, it described the psychosomatic state of patients who had been separated from their families for a long time and felt an enormous homesickness. From the 18th century onwards, the word continued to describe the longing of individuals or groups, but instead of yearning only for a place, a temporal dimension was added to the meaning. This temporal or reflective nostalgia can be defined as an affective memory of a certain better past period that will never return. The proposed session explores the rhetoric of nostalgia, the representatives of nostalgia and the audiences of nostalgia in premodern Greek literature and society with particular attention to the Middle and Late Byzantine periods (ca. 800–1500). The six contributions present insights into the factual and fictional narratives. They investigate the forms and meanings of ʽthe longing for the pastʼ in a variety of literary contexts, seeking to recognise the authorʼs choice of a past period or occasion to long for and determine the predilection of nostalgic thinking patterns in different genres. Using discourse and historical analysis, the individual contributions examine nostalgiaʼs potential as an ideological and/or political strategy, a narrative technique, a poetic tool for eliciting a range of emotions from the contemporary and implied audiences, etc. The proposed session seeks to shed more light on the hitherto less studied topic of nostalgia in Byzantine evidence and, among many others, to contribute to the research on the Byzantinesʼ feelings and emotions.
Byzantine historiographical texts constitute true repositories of diverse themes and data, while simultaneously concealing an empire of emotions—nostalgia among them. But what, precisely, did the Rhomaioi lament? Some mourned the homeland they had abandoned or that had fallen under enemy rule; others longed for a better and happier time. In a single word, they mourned…
Based on its pseudo-Greek name, which emerged only in the late seventeenth century, nostalgia is typically defined as homesickness – that is, a sentiment of loss and displacement –and was, to some extent, historically regarded as an illness. However, given that the return of nostalgics to their homeland failed to alleviate their condition, it became…
The paper explores nostalgic notions of better times in the works of Eustathios of Thessalonike. The main focus is on the speeches and writings addressed to his community which involve a mix of overt or covert social criticism, paraenesis and nostalgia. Appeals to a former and truer state of man generally carry an inherent nostalgic…
Nostalgia, as a social emotion, was employed as a rhetorical tool to provoke a specific emotional response in the audience and to encourage their identification with the writer. In this paper, we aim to explore the use of nostalgia in the texts of Gennadios Scholarios written after the Fall of Constantinople. In these texts, Scholarios…
In this communication, legal acts mortis causa are examined through the lens of nostalgia. Given that such acts are composed for a future in which the testator is no longer alive, the study highlights their sacral nature. Nostalgia can be connected to the sacral character of mortis causa acts, as it reflects a longing not…
A catabatic narrative narrates a descent into the Underworld, commonly through a dream or vision. The dream acts as a portal, linking the world of the living with the realm of the dead and creating the ground for confrontations that would otherwise be impossible. Besides emotions like fear and anxiety, these interactions frequently evoke nostalgia…