Nostalgic Natality and the Politics of Homecoming

Open Access
- Author:
- Irizarry, Anthony Joseph
- Graduate Program:
- Communication Arts and Sciences
- Degree:
- Master of Arts
- Document Type:
- Master Thesis
- Date of Defense:
- June 13, 2018
- Committee Members:
- Bradford James Vivian, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor
Stephen Howard Browne, Committee Member
Rosa A Eberly, Committee Member - Keywords:
- Nostos
Algos
Ethos
Homelessness
Crisis - Abstract:
- This thesis seeks to centralize nostalgia’s active role within moments of publicly perceived crisis. Specifically, it positions nostalgia at the intersection between pain, home, and ethos in order to exemplify nostalgia’s ability to construct and implement specific visions of home from which populations can seek out new political and cultural beginnings. The thesis explores the relationship between algos, nostos, and ethos within three distinct yet thematically connected case studies: Paris in the aftermath of the November 2015 attacks, Austin, Texas in the aftermath of February 2017 ICE raids and subsequent passing of Senate Bill 4, and Charlottesville, Virginia in the wake of the August 2017 Unite the Right rally and protests. Through these case studies, this thesis ultimately argues for nostalgia’s role as an active force that frames people’s judgment of the present and makes possible visions of a better future. Chapter One situates nostalgia as a distinctively rhetorical phenomenon through a centralization of algos within the aftermath of the November 2015 Paris Attacks. Chapter Two seeks to solidify nostalgia as a rhetoric of both homecoming and homelessness by examining the public and legal discourse that established the conditions for the Austin, Texas ICE raids and the passing of Texas Senate Bill 4, which prohibited sanctuary cities from the state. Chapter Three explores the ethics of dwelling within the context of Charlottesville, Virginia and the debates, rallies, and protests surrounding the removal of Robert E Lee’s and Stonewall Jackson’s statues from Emancipation Park. Through these three case studies, this project attempts to answer the following questions: What are the political and material implications of accessing nostalgia as a means for beginning again? Whose nostalgic visions are allowed to influence and shape a people following moments of crisis? What does nostalgia do to the stability of a people’s ethos? Nostalgia provides populations with the means to work toward beginning again amidst moments of crisis. A nuanced understanding of this process, then, will hopefully enhance the way rhetoricians and public memory scholars engage the politics of homecoming and the rhetorical mechanisms of nostalgic natality.