Bringing Nostalgia Home

Switzerland and the Swiss Chalet

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Publication Year
2018
Language
English
Copyright
© 2018 I.G. Cieraad
Research Group
OLD Interior
Issue number
2
Volume number
6
Pages (from-to)
265–288
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Abstract

This article presents an interpretation of nostalgia in which it is traced back to its original meaning as an emotion concerned not with time, but with place, the Alpine mountains of Switzerland, which in the early nineteenth century became associated with notions of the medieval past. With recourse to nineteenth-century anthropological theories of cultural evolution, an attempt is made to explain the term’s shift in meaning. Nostalgia, as an emotion glorifying authenticity, was and still is propelled by imagery created in a wide variety of media. It found early and long-lasting expression in the international popularity of the Swiss chalet.