Nostalgie

Why do we sometimes feel like strangers, even when we are at home? And why, Barbara Cassin wonders, do I feel nostalgia when I think of Corsica, even though I have no roots there? In her celebrated essay, she explores this powerful feeling and the universal themes of flight, exile, and longing for a homeland by reinterpreting two foundational texts of Western culture: Homer's Odyssey and Virgil's Aeneid. In a brilliant analysis of the work of the exile Hannah Arendt, Cassin then shows how the longing for home should be rethought in light of its often fatal consequences, namely in terms of language rather than territory.