Cities of nostalgia: Collision of past, present and memory in space in nostalgia, the Black Book and ignorance

This thesis examines the notion of nostalgia and its connection with the city in literature in the selected contemporary works of Mircea Cărtărescu's Nostalgia (1989), Orhan Pamuk's The Black Book (1990) and Milan Kundera's Ignorance (2000). It aims to explicate the collision of past, present and memory in the urban space. This study argues that the city as space prompts and embodies nostalgia. The works chosen accumulate nostalgia in connection with their corresponding cities. In this context, cities in question are Bucharest, Istanbul and Prague respectively. Each of them bears tumultuous histories, which makes them crucial spaces for nostalgic reflection. This dialogue between the city and nostalgia is explicated predominantly through urban studies and conceptions of space in phenomenology. Through these examinations this thesis suggests that as the cities contain the residues of their historical past, they fulfill an active role in the workings of nostalgic memories, either in a politicized or private respect. Furthermore, this study aims to suggest a discussion of the themes of nostalgia and the city, in works situated outside the Western canon.