Everything about Nostalgia totally explained
The term
nostalgia describes a
longing for the past, often in
idealized form.
The word is made up of two Greek roots (νόστος
nostos "returning home", and άλγος
algos "pain"), to refer to "the pain a sick person feels because he wishes to return to his native land, and fears never to see it again". It was described as a medical condition, a form of
melancholy, in the
Early Modern period, and came to be an important topos in
Romanticism.
As a medical condition
The term was coined in 1688 by Johannes Hofer (1669-1752) in his
Basel dissertation.
Hofer introduced
nostalgia or
mal du pays "
homesickness" for the condition also known as
mal du Suisse "Swiss illness" or
Schweizerheimweh "Swiss homesickness", because of its frequent occurrence in
Swiss mercenaries who in the plains of lowlands of France or Italy were pining for their native mountain landscapes. English
homesickness is a
loan translation of
nostalgia.
Cases resulting in death were known and soldiers were sometimes successfully treated by being discharged and sent home. Receiving a diagnosis was, however, generally regarded as an insult. In 1787,
Robert Hamilton (
1749-
1830) described a case of a soldier suffering from nostalgia, who received sensitive and successful treatment:
» "In the year 1781, while I lay in barracks at
Tin mouth in the north of
England, a recruit who had lately joined the regiment,...was returned in sick list, with a message from his captain, requesting I'd take him into the hospital. He had only been a few months a soldier; was young, handsome, and well-made for the service; but a melancholy hung over his countenance, and wanness preyed on his cheeks. He complained of a universal weakness, but no fixed pain; a noise in his ears, and giddiness of his head....As there were little obvious symptoms of fever, I didn't well know what to make of the case...Some weeks passed with little alteration...excepting that he was evidently become more meager. He scarcely took any nourishment...became indolent...He was put on a course of strengthening medicines; wine was allowed him. All proved ineffectual. He had now been in the hospital three months, and was quite emaciated, and like one in the last stage of consumption... On making my morning visit, and inquiring, as usual, of his rest at the nurse, she happened to mention the strong notions he'd got in his head, she said, of home, and of his friends. What he was able to speak was constantly on this topic. This I'd never heard of before...He had talked in the same style, it seems, less or more, ever since he came into the hospital. I went immediately up to him, and introduced the subject; and from the alacrity with which he resumed it.. I found it a theme which much affected him. He asked me, with earnestness, if I'd let him go home. I pointed out to him how unfit he was, from his weakness to undertake such a journey [hewas a Welchman] till once he was better; but promised him, assuredly, without farther hesitation, that as soon as he was able he should have six weeks to go home. He revived at the very thought of it... His apeitite soon mended; and I saw in less than a week, evident signs of recovery."
By the
1850s, nostalgia was losing its status as a disease and coming to be seen as a symptom or stage of a pathological process. It was considered as a form of
melancholia and a predisposing condition among suicides. By the
1870s, interest in nostalgia as a medical category had all but vanished.
Romanticism
Swiss nostalgia was stronly linked to the singing of
Kuhreihen. The claim that these songs were forbidden on pain of death to Swiss mercenaries because their causing violent
nostalgia to the point of desertion, illness or death in their compatriots was widely repeated in the 18th century, and appears in the 1767
Dictionnaire de Musique by
Jean-Jacques Rousseau. It became somewhat of a
topos in Romantic literature, and figures in the poem
Der Schweizer by
Achim von Arnim (1805) and in
Clemens Brentano's
Des Knaben Wunderhorn (1809) as well as in the opera
Le Chalet by
Adolphe Charles Adam (1834) which was performed for
Queen Victoria under the title
The Swiss Cottage. The Romantic connection of
nostalgia, the
Kuhreihen and the
Swiss Alps was a significant factor in the enthusiasm for Switzerland, the development of early
tourism in Switzerland and
Alpinism that took hold of the European cultural elite in the 19th century.
German Romanticism coined an opposite to
Heimweh,
Fernweh "far-sickness", "longing to be far away", like
Wanderlust expressing the Romantic desire to travel and explore.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Nostalgia'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://nostalgia.totallyexplained.com">Nostalgia Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
