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The literary act is almost inescapably nostalgic. That most clich茅 of opening lines鈥斺�極nce upon a time鈥︹�欌�攕ignals the plaintive longing for time past that is emblematic of nostalgia. In The Future of Nostalgia, Svetlana Boym states that: 鈥楴ostalgia (from 苍辞蝉迟辞蝉鈥�return home, and 补濒驳颈补鈥�longing) is a longing for a home that no longer exists or has never existed.鈥� To look back nostalgically is not to recall the past as it really was, but to elide, distort, and occlude its realities in the light of what has happened since. Indeed, contemporary western culture appears at present to be caught in a nostalgic stasis. Two of the most successful political slogans in recent years have focused on the notion of restoring a prior state of being: taking back control, making America great again. 聽Nostalgia might therefore appear to go hand-in-hand with a kind of latent imperialism, but it is important to bear in mind that nostalgia has been harnessed just as much to fight against imperialism as it has been to reimpose it. The articles in Volume 12 of Moveable Type each, in their own way, grapple with the complexities of nostalgia in literature, showing it to be both a progressive and a regressive force.
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Editorial Introduction
Sam Caleb and Niall 脫 Cuileag谩in -听
Journal Articles
MC Koch -听
Leila Aouadi -
Jamie Zabel -
Reviews
Fraser McIlwraith 辞苍听
Heather Scott 辞苍听
Saronik Bosu on
Claire Watt 辞苍听
Max Fletcher 辞苍听