On Nostalgia. A Study in Lexical Semantics

Abstract

Making use of the idea, suggested in the writings of Hjelmslev, that between lexemes and longer statements the difference is rather one of length than of nature, this article focuses on the definition of "nostalgia" in the usual dictionaries of the French language, describing the states and transformations involved in the semantics of this complex passion, as it features in the midst of related emotional configurations within the cultural domain in question. There is, in nostalgia "à la française," the gradual wasting away of a subject who cannot help but remember, sometimes a place, sometimes a thing, sometimes both - objects of value that he lost in the past but which continue to torment his present state of awareness. A landmark of the laborious conquest of the thymic dimension of narrativity and a beacon revealing the links between the lexical, the narrative and the discursive, this brief study by Greimas illustrates, through a specific analysis, some of the steps taken by the Semiotics of passions since its first developments.