Reverberating Past - by Barbara Gabriella Renzi & Goutam Majhi (Hardcover)

About the Book

Reverberating Past: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Art of Nostalgia provides a fresh lens on nostalgia by blending artistic and academic explorations, highlighting how cultural artifacts and personal memories shape collective identities. The anthology introduces a unique viewpoint on how the interdisciplinary perspectives investigate contemporary objects, from digital media to architecture, that act as vessels for nostalgia.

Book Synopsis

A unique, post-pandemic-era anthology that blends creative and critical works to redefine nostalgia studies through a culturally expansive and interdisciplinary lens

The edited collection titled Reverberating Past: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on the Art of Nostalgia is an interdisciplinary anthology that bridges the artistic and academic realms, exploring the concept of nostalgia through both personal and collective lenses. The volume is divided into two parts: the first part features poetry and short stories that capture the emotional resonance of past experiences, while the second one presents scholarly articles that delve into the multifaceted nature of nostalgia across disciplines such as literature, film, history, and psychology.
In the second part titled "Critical Essays," there are seven essays. First chapter titled "Cuban and Puerto Rican Nostalgias: Where Another Place Is Home" examines how different forms of nostalgia are expressed and represented, focusing on Cuban and Puerto Rican experiences. The second chapter titled "Sculpting in History: Nostalgic Structures in Indian Popular Culture" explores how nostalgic structures, particularly historical monuments, are used in Indian cinema to evoke cultural memory and shape both regional and national identities. The third chapter titled "Fashioning the Memories: A Phenomenological Outlook on Identity, Fashion, and Nostalgia" explores how personal identity is shaped through nostalgic connections to fashion, revealing how clothing serves as a vessel for lived experiences and emotional recollection. The fourth chapter titled "Nostalgia and Digital Twins: Bridging Memories and Virtual Realities" explores how digital twins--virtual, data-driven replicas of people, places, or objects--interact with nostalgia to create immersive experiences that preserve, evoke, and reinterpret the past. The fifth chapter titled "Revisiting Indian Festivities: Tracing Cultural Identities Through Collective Memory" investigates how traditional festivals serve as a lens to understand evolving cultural identities in India, elucidating the functions of collective memory. The sixth chapter "Roots and Reverie: Italian Women's Literature Through a Migrant's Eyes" looks into the theme of nostalgia in the works of prominent Italian women writers, highlighting how their narratives encapsulate the emotional pull of memory, identity, and belonging. The seventh or final chapter titled "Recuperating the Desire for Desire: Nostalgia, Recognition, and an Ethics of Fiction" critically examines Moyez Vassanji's Nostalgia through Lacanian and Levinasian lenses to argue that empathy can recuperate the other beyond compromised memory and Orientalist discourse.
The book emphasizes how contemporary artifacts--term used in a metaphorical way--serve as vessels for nostalgic experiences, shaping our understanding of the past and its influence on the present.

About the Author

Barbara Gabriella Renzi is a senior lecturer in Psychology at BSBI, Berlin School of Business and Innovation. She has over 20 years of international teaching experience in psychology, philosophy, and education at institutions such as Queen's University Belfast and Universität Trier. A widely published author, her work on evolutionary epistemology is cited in the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, reflecting her lasting impact on interdisciplinary research.
Goutam Majhi is an assistant professor at the Department of English, Sadhan Chandra Mahavidyalaya, affiliated to the University of Calcutta, India. He is a founding member of the Global Plant Humanities Network (GPHN). His recent co-edited collection titled Beyond the Heteronorm: Critiquing Critical Alterities in Global Art and Literature was published in April 2024.