A Note on Nostalgia

توضیحات

A Note on Nostalgia Bryan S. Turner Given the current debate on modernism and postmodernism, it is perhaps appropriate to consider the underlying metaphors of time and space in social theory, culture and political programmes. Optimism and pessimism about social change have been conven- tionally conceptualized within the framework of temporal Utopias. Following the work of K. Mannheim (1936), a variety of authors have recently drawn attention to the political importance of the concepts of Utopia and dystopia (Levitas, 1982). From a wider historical perspective, especially in the development of art forms, the land of Cockaigne and Arcadia played a major part in the iconography of Western imagination. In this note on Utopian times, I shall draw attention to the central role of nostalgia and nostalgic metaphors in the development of western civilization with special reference to contemporary social theory. My commentary is self- consciously parasitic upon medical history and art history, where I have drawn extensively on the work of Erwin Panofsky (Meiss, 1961). For example the function of nostalgic places and times in the development of pastoral art and literature in the seventeenth century has been widely discussed in art history. The appeal of pastoral art