Of narratives and nostalgia

Abstract

This article provides an introduction to and outlines the rationale for the focus of this special issue, Of Narratives and Nostalgia. It therefore provides a broad description of the Apartheid Archive Project, which had served as the platform for the development of all the articles contained in this special issue. Additionally, it sketches the broad contours of, and interrogates, some of the key theoretical constructs that recur across the articles constituting this special issue. These include the constructs, nostalgia, mourning, pathological grief, melancholia, and racial melancholia. Importantly, the article very briefly also explores the some of the potentially socially disruptive sequelae as well as the arguably creative and generative functions of nostalgia in personal narratives of the past. The article concludes with evaluative summaries of all the articles contained in this special issue.