Temporal and Spatial Dimensions in Saudade and Nostalgia

Abstract

This paper endeavors an analysis of saudade and nostalgia from the perspective of space and time categories. While there undoubtedly exist certain similarities between these concepts, including both being rooted in the deeply human experience of loss, lack and transience, as well as being directly linked to the complex inner workings of memory, they are not synonymous. Saudade, one of the foundations of the Portuguese identity, is commonly translated as “yearning” and “nostalgia,” yet several scholars, such as Correia, have suggested that what distinguishes saudade from nostalgia is the specificity of its temporal dimension. Importantly, the emotion/state of saudade is not necessarily connected with a specific place since it is the complex – and somewhat ambiguous – timeframe that underpins it. Nostalgia (from: nóstos = homecoming and álgos = pain), on the other hand, is conceptually governed by space for, as proposed by Boym, it “is a longing for a home that no longer exists or has never existed.” Hence, nostalgia is essentially intertwined with spatial, not only temporal, object of longing, which is further developed by Panico, who emphasizes the significance of the space–nostalgia relationship by observing that spaces act as triggers, stages and “spatial consolation” for nostalgic returns.