Critique of Oral History Question 41
Hassan Beheshtipour
Machine Translation edited by Mandana Karimi
2026-07-29
As is the practice every week, the Oral History website sent oral history question number 41 to experts in this field and asked them to provide their answer in 100 words. In the meantime, Mr. Hassan Beheshtipour, an oral history activist and expert, found the question problematic. The following note explains the objection and the expert’s critical view of last week’s question.
41. What effect does nostalgia (a pleasant emotional feeling accompanied by a kind of longing for a situation in the past) have on the association of memories and the formation of narrative?
This question, in essence, has several serious challenges. First, the definition of nostalgia provided in parentheses is incomplete. Because it limits nostalgia only to the "past," when the word nostalgia originally means "the pain of being away from home," not "the pain of being away from the past. “Later, its concept expanded and the past became one of the subjects of nostalgia, but not it is only subject. Because a person may feel nostalgic for their birthplace, their ancestral home, a neighborhood, a language or dialect, a culture, a human community, and even a way of life that may still be part of it.
Second, nostalgia is not always pleasant. Psychologists today consider it a bittersweet emotion; that is, it contains two opposing feelings at the same time, the pleasure of remembering and the sadness of losing or being away. Sometimes the sadness aspect is much more pronounced than the pleasure.
Third, the element of "lack" is absent from this definition. What distinguishes nostalgia from simply remembering the past is the feeling of distance or loss? For example, if I only remember my elementary school days, this is a memory, but if I feel that that period, those people, that space, or that quality of life is no longer lost and irretrievable, and this feeling creates a sweet sadness in me, then we are dealing with nostalgia. Therefore, the main element of nostalgia is not simply the past, but the loss of something valuable.
Fourth, the question is not exactly clear. Is the narrative in this question, as in the previous questions, the effect of nostalgia on the formation of the narrative in the oral history in question? In that case, what is its relationship to the effect of nostalgia on memories?
Fifth, how can one provide a precise and correct answer to this question in a hundred words, which has at least four basic forms? But, if you assume that we accept the definition of nostalgia as follows: Nostalgia is a complex emotion mixed with longing, longing, and pleasure that arises as a result of a sense of distance or loss from a person, place, time, relationship, culture, or valuable experience, and usually, by remembering it, it also evokes a sense of continuity of identity and meaning in life in the individual.
Click here to view the source for the definition of nostalgia.
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