What remains? On material nostalgia

This chapter argues that materiality, the longing for things and particularly nonmodern materialities, is a potentially utopian and subversive form of engaging with the past. Although nostalgia and roots are commonly associated with place, the truth is that several philosophers have linked it with language. This was the case most notably with Hannah Arendt. Material nostalgia is based first and foremost on the assumption that the past is vital for the present and the future. The defense of rootedness and continuity can also be subversive and liberating, as in the case of the demands of indigenous peoples, expropriated from their past and evicted from their lands. Continuity does not mean, should not mean that interruptions between past and present are denied or glossed over. To stress the link between past and present is compatible with emphasizing the rupture, the gap that modernity, capitalism or colonialism opened between past and present.