Contained in:
Book Chapter

Chronotopes of Affectivity in Literature. On Melancholy, Estrangement, and Reflective Nostalgia

  • Laura Salmon

Basing our analysis on the concepts of ‘emotion’, ‘feeling’, and ‘mood’ as defined by data from the cognitive sciences, we argue that human emotions are both universal and intrinsically linked to literary and artistic chronotopes. In her study of 'reflective' and 'restorative' nostalgia, Svetlana Boym (2001) shows that 'nostalgia' itself represents pure ambivalence that takes on a particular shape in response to the mood, thoughts, and psychological state of the author. Its ultimate expression might assume the form of either monological ideology or of paradoxical existential emotion. It is this second type of nostalgia that we can link most closely link to understandings of both 'melancholy' and 'identity' or 'self-consciousness'. Brooding and melancholic toska is shared by persons who suffer from what we might call 'existential ambivalence'; these persons are 'mercurials' in the terminology of Yuri Slezkine (2004). Within the field of Russian literature, this 'mercurial' sense of melancholy is particularly well developed.

  • Keywords:
  • Literary emotions,
  • nostalgia,
  • Literature & cognitive science,
  • chronotopes,
+ Show More

Laura Salmon

University of Genoa, Italy - ORCID: 0000-0002-2917-7630

  1. Argenton A., Messina I. (2000) - L ’enigma del mondo poetico. L ’indagine sperimentale in psicologia della letteratura, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino.
  2. Bak D.P. (1995) - Èstetika M. Baxtina v kontekste genezisa idei istoričeskoj poètiki, in K.G. Isupov (ed.), Baxtinologija. Issledovanija, perevody, publikacii, II, Aletejja, SPb., 179-188.
  3. Bakhtin [Baxtin] M.M. (1981) - Forms of Time and of the Chronotope in the Novel: Notes toward a Historical Poetics (1937-1938), in Id., The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays, University of Texas Press, Austin, 84-258.
  4. Boyd B. (2009) - On the Origin of Stories: Evolution, Cognition, and Fiction, Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge-London.
  5. Boym S. (2001) - The Future of Nostalgia, Basic Books, New York.
  6. Burton R. (1989) - The Anatomy of Melancholy (1621), ed. by T.C. Faulkner, N.K. Kiessling, R.L. Blair, Clarendon, Oxford.
  7. Changeux J.-P. (2004) - L ’Homme de vérité (2002), Odile, Paris.
  8. Dal’ V. (1979) - Tolkovyj slovar’ živogo velikorusskogo jazyka (1880-1882), I-IV, Russkij jazyk, M.
  9. Damasio A. (2003) - Looking for Spinoza: Joy, Sorrow, and the Feeling Brain, Harcourt, Orlando.
  10. Damasio A. (2006) - Descartes’ Error (1994), Vintage, London.
  11. Davidson R.J. (1994) - On Emotion, Mood, and Related Affective Constructs, in P. Ekman, R.J. Davidson, The Nature of Emotion: Fundamental Questions, Oxford University Press, New York-Oxford, 51-55.
  12. Dickinson S. (2015) - Otečestvo, Otčizna, Rodina: Russian ‘Translations ’ of Patrie in the Napoleonic Period, in D.C. Offord, L. Ryazanova-Clarke, V. Rjéoutski, G. Argent (eds.), French and Russian in Imperial Russia, II, Language Attitudes and Identity, Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh, 179-196.
  13. Diddi C. (2009) - Sulla genesi e il significato del cronotopo in Bachtin, “Ricerche slavistiche”, LIII (VII N.S.), 143-156.
  14. Dissanayake E. (1995) - Homo Aestheticus (1992), University of Washington Press, Seattle.
  15. Dovlatov S. (1983) - Marš odinokix, New England Publishing Co., Holyoke (MA).
  16. Ejxenbaum B.M. (1924) - Kak sdelana ‘Šinel” Gogolja, in Id., Skvoz literatury. Sbornik stat’ej (1919), Academia, L., 306-326.
  17. Ekman P., Davidson R.J. (eds.) (1994) - The Nature of Emotion: Fundamental Questions, Oxford University Press, New York-Oxford.
  18. Etkind A. (2005) - Filologija, psixologija i politika Efima Etkinda, in E. Etkind, Psixopoetika, Iskusstvo-SPB, SPb, 5-14.
  19. Etkind E. (2005) - Psixopoetika, Iskusstvo-SPB, SPb.
  20. Evgen’eva A.P. (1985) - Slovar’ russkogo jazyka v četyrex tomax, I-IV, Russkij jazyk, M.
  21. Frank L.K. (1954) - Feelings and Emotions, Doubleday & Co., New York.
  22. Frijda N.H. (1994) - Varieties of Affect: Emotions and Episodes, Moods, and Sentiments, in P. Ekman, R.J. Davidson (eds.), The Nature of Emotion: Fundamental Questions, Oxford University Press, New York-Oxford, 59-67.
  23. Gebert L. (2012) - Le caractère national dans la langue et la typologie linguistique, “Cahiers de l’Institut de Linguistique et des Sciences du Langage”, 33, 101-112.
  24. Harkins J., Wierzbicka A. (2001) - Emotions in Crosslinguistic Perspective, Mouton de Gruytier, Berlin.
  25. Hughes J. (2011) - ‘Affective Worlds’. Writing, Feeling and Nineteenth-Century Literature, Sussex Academic Press, Portland (GB).
  26. Jakobson R. (1987) - On Linguistic Aspects of Translation (1959), in Id., Language in Literature, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Cambridge-London, 428-435.
  27. Juxannison [Johannisson] K. (2011) - Istorija melanxolii (2009), “Novoe Literatumoe Obozrenie”, M.
  28. Kagan J. (1994) - On Emotion, Mood, and Related Affective Constructs, in P. Ekman, R.J. Davidson (eds.), The Nature of Emotion: Fundamental Questions, Oxford University Press, New York-Oxford, 74-78.
  29. Lazarus R. (1994) - Individual Differences in Emotion, in P. Ekman, R.J. Davidson (eds.), The Nature of Emotion: Fundamental Questions, Oxford University Press, New York-Oxford, 332-336.
  30. LeDoux J. (1996) - The Emotional Brain: The Mysterious Underpinnings of Emotional Life, Phoenix, London.
  31. LeDoux J. (2002) - Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are, Viking, New York.
  32. McEwan I. (2005) - Literature, Science, and Human Nature, in E.O. Wilson, F. Crews (eds.), The Literary Animal: Evolution and the Nature of Narrative, Northwestern University Press, Evanston, 5-19.
  33. Oxford Dictionary (2015) - Oxford Dictionary of British and World English, cf. <http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/browse/english/> (cons. 01.10.15).
  34. Pickering M. (2001) - Stereotyping: The Politics of Representation, Paigrave, New York.
  35. Pinker S. (1997) - How the Mind Works, W.W. Norton, New York.
  36. Pirandello L. (1995) - L ’umorismo (1908), Garzanti, Milano.
  37. Ponzio A. (2002) - Presentazione, in I. Kanaev (M. Baxtin), Il vitalismo contemporaneo, “Athanor”, XIII.5, 21-26.
  38. Prete A. (2008) - Trattato della Lontananza, Bollati Boringhieri, Torino.
  39. Rosenwein B.H. (2010) - Problems and Methods in the History of Emotions, “Passions in Context: International Journal for the History and Theory of Emotions”, 1, 1-32, cf. <http://www.passionsincontext.de/uploads/media/01_Rosenwein.pdf> (cons. 08.08.14).
  40. Salmon L. (2006) - A Theoretical Proposal on Human Translation Processes, “Cognitive Systems”, VI.4, 311-334.
  41. Sherer K. (1994) - Universals in Antecedents of Emotion, in P. Ekman, R.J. Davidson (eds.), The Nature of Emotion: Fundamental Questions, Oxford University Press, New York-Oxford, 172-175.
  42. Slezkine Y. (2004) - The Jewish Century, Princeton University Press, Princeton.
  43. Šmelev A.D. (1997) - Leksičeskij sostav russkogo jazyka kak otraženie ‘russkoj duši’, in T.V. Bulgarina, A.D. Šmelev (eds.), Jazykovaja konceptualizacija mira (na materiale russkoj grammatiki), Jazyki russkoj kul’tury, M., 481-495.
  44. Šmelev A.D. (2001a) - Vzaimodejstvie jazyka i kul’tury: ot slovarja do jazykovogo oblika moral’no-religioznoj propovedi, in A. Werzbicka, Sopostavlenie kul’tur čerez posredstvo leksiki i pragmatiki, Jazyki slavianskoi kul’tury, M., 9-13.
  45. Šmelev A.D. (2001b) - Mogut li slova jazyka byt’ ključom k ponimaniju kul’tury?, in A. Werzbicka, Ponimanie kul’tur čerez posredstvo ključevyx slov, Jazyki slavianskoi kul’tury, M., 7-11.
  46. Vinitsky [Vinickij] I. (2011) - ‘The Queen of Lofty Thoughts’: The Cult of Melancholy in Russian Sentimentalism, in M.D. Steinberg, V. Sobol (eds.), Interpreting Emotions in Russia and Eastern Europe, Northern Illinois University Press, DeKalb, 18-43.
  47. Volková B. (2008) - Exile Inside and Out, in A.H. Rosenfeld (ed.), The Writer Uprooted: Contemporary Jewish Exile Literature, Indiana University Press, Bloomington, 161-176.
  48. Vysockij V. (1999) - Sočinenija v dvux tomax, Lokid, M.
  49. Wierzbicka A. (1999) - Duša 'Soul', Toska 'Yearning', Sud’ba 'Fate': Three Key Concepts in Russian Language and Russian Culture, in Z. Saloni (ed.), Metody formal’ne v opisie języków słowianskich, Dział Wydawnictw Filii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego, Białystok, 13-32.
  50. Zareckij E. (2007) - O russkom fatalizme v grammatike, “Relga”, CLVII.12, cf. <http://www.relga.ru/Environ/WebObj ects/tgu-www.woa/wa/Main?textid=2030&level1=main&level2=articles> (cons. 02.13.15).
PDF
  • Publication Year: 2015
  • Pages: 11-30
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2015 Author(s)

XML
  • Publication Year: 2015
  • Content License: CC BY 4.0
  • © 2015 Author(s)

Chapter Information

Chapter Title

Chronotopes of Affectivity in Literature. On Melancholy, Estrangement, and Reflective Nostalgia

Authors

Laura Salmon

Language

English

DOI

10.36253/978-88-6655-822-4.02

Peer Reviewed

Publication Year

2015

Copyright Information

© 2015 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Bibliographic Information

Book Title

Melancholic Identities, Toska and Reflective Nostalgia

Book Subtitle

Case Studies from Russian and Russian-Jewish Culture

Editors

Sara Dickinson, Laura Salmon

Peer Reviewed

Number of Pages

194

Publication Year

2015

Copyright Information

© 2015 Author(s)

Content License

CC BY 4.0

Metadata License

CC0 1.0

Publisher Name

Firenze University Press

DOI

10.36253/978-88-6655-822-4

ISBN Print

978-88-6655-821-7

eISBN (pdf)

978-88-6655-822-4

eISBN (xml)

978-88-9273-384-8

Series Title

Biblioteca di Studi Slavistici

Series ISSN

2612-7687

Series E-ISSN

2612-7679

514

Fulltext
downloads

404

Views

Export Citation

1,361

Open Access Books

in the Catalogue

2,368

Book Chapters

3,870,371

Fulltext
downloads

4,536

Authors

from 943 Research Institutions

of 66 Nations

67

scientific boards

from 357 Research Institutions

of 43 Nations

1,249

Referees

from 381 Research Institutions

of 38 Nations