About Islands and Oranges: Nostalgia at Play in the Work of Juhani Seppovaara

TitleAbout Islands and Oranges: Nostalgia at Play in the Work of Juhani Seppovaara
Publication TypeJournal Article
Year of Publication2016
AuthorsLaura1 Hirvi
JournalJournal of Finnish Studies
Volume19
Issue2
Pagination115-131
ISSN12066516
Abstract

This article explores how nostalgia is produced through the practice of reading and writing, thereby exposing some of the dynamic layers that trigger nostalgic sentiments. The analysis focuses on the work of Finnish freelance artist Juhani Seppovaara, whose books arouse in readers feelings of nostalgia. The study is based on a collaboration that has continued through the entire research process. The findings stemming from this ethnographic case study imply that nostalgic sentiments are set free through interactions, such as between a person and material goods, which have the potential to evoke memories. Such memory triggers may also be embedded in the text. In the act of reading through a text readers may create nostalgia in complicity with the written words, regardless of the author's possible intentions. This may also result in a form of "the reader's armchair nostalgia," meaning that people long for a past of which they do not have either a personal or a collective historical memory.

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Short TitleAbout Islands and Oranges