Emotions, language and identity on the margins of Europe / Kyra Giorgi.

Format:

• Book

Author/Creator:

• Giorgi, Kyra, 1977-

Series:

• Palgrave studies in the history of emotions
• Palgrave Studies in the History of Emotions

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

• Emotive (Linguistics).
• Language and culture--Europe.
• Language and culture.
• Historical linguistics.
• Europe.
• National characteristics.
• Historical linguistics--Europe.

Physical Description:

x, 234 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire : Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Summary:

"Nations usually define themselves in positive terms; they proclaim themselves strong and victorious, or developed and prosperous. But what does it mean when the opposite is true - when negative feelings like regret, nostalgia, melancholy and fatalism are said to be the true essence of a culture? And what does it mean when these feelings are encapsulated in a single, untranslatable word?Bringing together three such word-concepts from Europe's periphery - saudade in Portugal, the Czech litost of Milan Kundera and Orhan Pamuk's of Istanbul - this book investigates claims that they embody the historical experiences and character of a people. In each case, it explores the historical, cultural and psychological mechanisms behind the invention of negative autostereotypes to offer new ways of thinking about individual and collective identities. This eclectic and broad-ranging study is not only a historical survey of emotions, but also a meditation on hope, belonging and the search for authenticity in the modern age"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

• 1 Emotions into History 8
• Untranslatability 8
• Naming emotions 10
• Nostalgia: an early word-concept 12
• Melancholy sadness 13
• Peripheral identities 16
• Progress, modernity and time 17
• National characters, spirits and emotions 19
• Melancholy, modernity and the intelligentsia 21
• Part I Saudade and Portugueseness
• 2 Proudly Alone? 32
• What is saudade? 32
• The polemic-a 'dialogue of noncommunicators' 35
• Crisis 41
• Portugal and Europe 43
• Alienation and periphery 48
• 3 Modernity and Martyrdom 53
• Saudosismo as a fundamentalist religion 53
• Race and essentialism 55
• A pleasurable pain 59
• Portugal immortal 62
• Hope for the future 64
• Pascoaes-prophecy and delusion 67
• Disllusionment 72
• Part II Litost and Czechness
• 4 Evolution of a Fatalism 84
• What is litost? 84
• The 'Czech Destiny' debate 88
• 'The Tragedy of Central Europe' 94
• With suffering, without pity 97
• Translation and resistance 99
• Middle ground 101
• 5 Culture As Identity 103
• Czech linguistic nationalism 103
• Little Czech man, little Czech nation 107
• Czechness personified 109
• Humour 111
• Faith and belonging 114
• Part III Hüzün and Turkishness
• 6 Defining Memories 126
• What is hüzün? 126
• The melancholy text-Istanbul: Memories and the City 129
• Pamuk-the personal and the political 133
• Translation and audience 135
• Modern Istanbul, modern Turkey-the book's context 137
• Modes of Turkishness 140
• Nostalgia and time 144
• 7 Occidental Tourism 149
• Istanbul and its discontents 149
• Looking at Istanbul 154
• Turkish melancholy from Empire to Republic 156
• The re-enchantment of Turkey 160
• Turkishness and immaturity 163
• The happy Turk 165
• The old and the new 168.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 182-225) and index.

ISBN:

• 9781137403476
• 1137403470

OCLC:

881805615