The term “nostalgia” was initially coined by Johannes Holfer, a Swiss student in the 17th century. It was used to describe an illness, a kind of “homesickness”. He coined the term to explain the anxieties of Swiss mercenaries fighting far from home. Nostalgia today is generally linked to the reminiscence of so-called simpler times of the past. Svetlana Boym interprets Holfer's interpretation of the sick by stating, "[they] have lost contact with the present" and have captivated "the ability to hear voices or see ghosts." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay The first American postmodern philosopher to use nostalgia as a channel for identity formation and maintenance was Ralph Harper. He is nicknamed the “father of American existentialism”. Harper's seminal work, published in 1966 and entitled "Nostalgia", is frequently shared with poetics to describe nostalgia: "Nostalgia combines bitterness and sweetness, the lost and the found, the distant and the near, the new and the familiar, absence and presence. . The past which is over, from which we have been or are being moved away, but a certain magic becomes present again for a short moment. But its reality seems even more familiar, because renewed, than it has ever been, more enchanting and more beautiful. As if by magic, it arises unexpectedly, unforeseen, in the midst of sterility and defeat, in the midst of waste steeped in desire. And what we desire is what we do not usually have, a feeling of intimate and immediate presentation of the whole to our consciousness. » Janelle Wilson demonstrates four fundamental functions of nostalgia. They are: Nostalgia is an intrapersonal expression of self that subjectively provides a feeling of continuity. Nostalgia is an interpersonal form of conversational play, used to create connections. Nostalgia is a form of ideologization or mystification of the past. be used as a cultural asset derived from the experience of a particular age group and transformed into a market segment. As Edgerton describes what she experienced during her childhood: “Displacement becomes meaningful to the extent that one cannot simply choose another place that is truly home. The place called “home” is in many ways closer to a part of anatomy than to a simple geographic location. » As stated by Janelle Wilson, the concept of nostalgia encompasses remembrance of the past, the present and, possibly, foreseeing the future. Wilson suggests that nostalgia is not simply about the past, as it is conventionally described. However, this is actually stated to be much more complicated. Nostalgia is not only located in time but also in space. While nostalgia is generally considered to be about time, it is also about space. She points out that nostalgia allows sociologists many things to examine and question. Sedikides, Wildschut, and Baden determined that nostalgia can serve an existential function, promising a person a meaningful life. In short, nostalgia can sustain a sense of substance. Sedikides and others, including Davis and Wilson, have emphasized that nostalgia can contribute to the advancement of identity persistence. Keep in mind: this is just a sample. Get a personalized article from our expert writers now. Get a Personalized Essay How Experiencing Nostalgia Could Be Additionally Beneficial to the Whole..