Nations usually define themselves in positive terms; they proclaim themselves strong and victorious, or developed and prosperous. But what does it mean when the opposite is true - when negative feelings like regret, nostalgia, melancholy and fatalism are said to be the true essence of a culture? And what does it mean when these feelings are encapsulated in a single, untranslatable word?
Bringing together three such word-concepts from Europe's periphery - saudade in Portugal, the Czech litost of Milan Kundera and Orhan Pamuk's huzun of Istanbul - this book investigates claims that...
Nations usually define themselves in positive terms; they proclaim themselves strong and victorious, or developed and prosperous. But what does it mea...
