Based on multi-sited ethnography, this article examines the return visits of Australian-Hungarian diaspora subjects after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In particular, it explores how nostalgia becomes an instrument for navigating the ambiguities, paradoxes, and disappointments of return and forging new and creative relationships with the home country. I argue that as much as nostalgia has contributed to the shattering of returnees’ illusions in the face of ‘reality’ upon returning, it has also helped them to facilitate deeper feelings of immersion with their home country. In this way, this article elucidates the restorative properties of nostalgia for identity and belonging.
Nostalgia as double-edged sword: Australian-Hungarians reclaim lost belonging in post-socialist Hungary
Petra Andits
2021-01-01
Abstract
Based on multi-sited ethnography, this article examines the return visits of Australian-Hungarian diaspora subjects after the fall of the Berlin Wall. In particular, it explores how nostalgia becomes an instrument for navigating the ambiguities, paradoxes, and disappointments of return and forging new and creative relationships with the home country. I argue that as much as nostalgia has contributed to the shattering of returnees’ illusions in the face of ‘reality’ upon returning, it has also helped them to facilitate deeper feelings of immersion with their home country. In this way, this article elucidates the restorative properties of nostalgia for identity and belonging.
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