NOSTALGIA JA SELLE PUUDUMINE EESTLASTE MÄLUKULTUURIS
Nostalgia and its Absence in Estonian Remembrance Culture: the View of a Biography Researcher

Summary/Abstract: The article critically approaches the category of nostalgia in the context of Estonian post-Soviet remembrance culture. On the one hand, the problem of politicization of the concept of nostalgia, and on the other hand, that of analytical ambiguity of this concept is raised. The discussion proceeds from the understanding that several distinct nostalgias simultaneously act on individual and communal levels. Nostalgia corresponds to a variety of individual needs and (political) aims, being a cultural resource and strategy applicable in different ways. From the aspect of remembrance culture, nostalgia is understood as a phenomenon involving syncretic potential, which in some forms may be manifested simultaneously on the state or national level, communal level and individual level. On these grounds it is shown, based on biographical research conducted in Estonia since the 1990s, what opportunities there are for interpreting the post-Soviet life stories of Estonians through the prism of nostalgia.

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