Looking Backward to It: Nostalgia in the Deuteronomistic History
When and why do people engage in nostalgia, a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past? Traditional approaches viewed nostalgia as pathological, centered around a paralyzing fixation upon foregone situations at the expense of present realities. But more recent empirically controlled stu...
| Subtitles: | Zimrat JAH: A Tribute To Ann Hackett |
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| Main Author: | |
| Contributors: | |
| Format: | Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Western Academic Press
2021
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| In: |
Maarav
Year: 2021, Volume: 25, Issue: 1/2, Pages: 153-181 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Israel (Theology)
/ Israelites
/ Nostalgia
/ Deuteronomistic history
/ Social sciences
/ Psychology
/ Historiography
/ Identity
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| IxTheo Classification: | HB Old Testament |
| Further subjects: | B
Festschrift
B Hackett, Ann |
| Parallel Edition: | Electronic
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| Summary: | When and why do people engage in nostalgia, a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past? Traditional approaches viewed nostalgia as pathological, centered around a paralyzing fixation upon foregone situations at the expense of present realities. But more recent empirically controlled studies have revealed that nostalgia can exercise positive and palliative effects amid hardships of life. Nostalgia turns out to be a panhuman and pancultural emotion that can get triggered by disruptions to intrinsic self-identity at both individual and collective levels. Among its psychological benefits are perceptions of greater social connectedness, enhanced self-esteem, amplified self-continuity, heightened optimism, augmented life meaning, and empowered prosociality and goal pursuit. This study examines instances of nostalgia in the Deuteronomistic History (DH) through a social psychological lens. It explores where and how the DH both invokes nostalgia (for its characters) and evokes nostalgia (from its audiences) at select critical junctures within the grand narrative spanning Deuteronomy to 2 Kings. The DH does this intentionally in order to leverage intuitively the personally accrued psychological benefits of nostalgia on behalf of bolstering Israelite collective self-identity amid continuity threats that arise across time and place. |
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| ISSN: | 0149-5712 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Maarav
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