Description
Book SynopsisA study of nostalgia in the lives of immigrants, forging a connection between the philosophy of identity and intercultural studies. It shows that the cultural adjustment of immigrants can only happen when personal identity is understood as a quest for continuity in one's life story.
Trade ReviewRitivoi's insights in Yesterday's Self are brilliant, groundbreaking, and profoundly correct. I am especially impressed with her literally beautiful and beautifully literary use of personal stories. One doesn't usually find such sensitivity or rich description in discussions of identity, at least not in philosophical discussions. -- Thomas E. Wren, Loyola University, Chicago
In this interesting and well-written book, Ritivoi makes a significant contribution to our understanding of immigration, memory, and nostalgia. * Sociology *
Yesterday's Self offers a lively and profound investigation of a slippery condition that is nonetheless ubiquitous in this age of mobility and displacement. It is a great pleasure to read a scholarly inquiry that is readable, lively, and fresh. Ritivoi has brought into English, with scholarly brio, the Romanian word 'dor,' and given it an amplitude that it never had beyond its balkan world. -- Andrei Codrescu, NPR columnist and editor of the online literary journal Exquisite Corpse
Table of ContentsChapter 1 Longing To Be Home Chapter 2 An Integrationist Model of Identity Chapter 3 Going Native: Nostalgia and Solitude Chapter 4 Going Home: Adjustment as Recognition Chapter 5 "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" Chapter 6 The Contingent Self
