Coming home again: Johannes Hofer, Edmund Spenser, and premodern nostalgia

Alexander Lee Davis

doi:10.1353/pgn.2016.0073

Coming home again: Johannes Hofer, Edmund Spenser, and premodern nostalgia

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

The word ‘nostalgia’ was coined by the Swiss medical student Johannes Hofer in his 1688 Dissertatio medica de nostalgia, oder Heimwehe. Hofer’s treatise and Edmund Spenser’s 1595 poem Colin Clouts Come Home Againe exemplify a premodern nostalgia. Hofer moves between moments of familiarity and alienation, while Spenser’s poem offers a richly imaginative response to the Elizabethan attempt to ‘plant’ new homes in Ireland. In each case, premodern nostalgia situates the longing for home within patterns of doubling and repetition that unsettle ideas of origin and belonging even as they propagate them.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	17-38
Journal	Parergon
Volume	33
Issue number	2
Early online date	20 Mar 2017
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1353/pgn.2016.0073
Publication status	Published - 25 Mar 2017

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10.1353/pgn.2016.0073

Davis_2016_Parergon_ComingHome_AAM
Copyright © 2016 Alex Davis. This work is made available online in accordance with the publisher’s policies. This is the author created, accepted version manuscript following peer review and may differ slightly from the final published version. The final published version of this work is available at https://doi.org/10.1353/pgn.2016.0073
Accepted author manuscript, 384 KB

Alex Davis
- ald3st-andrews.acuk
- School of English - Senior Lecturer
- Institute of Legal and Constitutional Research
- Institute of Medieval Studies
Person: Academic

Cite this

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Coming home again: Johannes Hofer, Edmund Spenser, and premodern nostalgia

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