ABSTRACT
In this Introduction, the conceptual history and some of the contemporary expressions, variations and transmutations of nostalgia are explored. The chapter first looks at what nostalgia originally meant when the notion was first coined by now several centuries ago. Following this, a number of dimensions or axes of nostalgia are analysed – disease/emotion, commercialisation and politicisation – showing how nostalgia is indeed an ambivalent emotion with many different (and at times even contradictory) meanings and purposes. Finally, the Introduction contains content information about all the included chapters.
