NOSTALGIA CRITIQUE

Nostalgia is a widespread structure of feeling in Western modernity. While critique of nostalgia has tended to be hostile and dismissive, associating the phenomenon with dominant and conservative forces in society, this paper argues that nostalgia is a valuable way of approaching the past, important to all social groups. Acknowledging the diversity of personal needs and political desires to which nostalgia is a response, the critique offered here focusses on the limitations that the nostalgic structure of rhetoric may place on effective historical interpretation and action.