Thomas Merton's Nostalgia

Abstract

This paper explores some writings that reflect aspects of Thomas Merton's life, viewed from the theories of nostalgia as developed by Jean Starobinsky (1966) and Svetlana Boym (2001). In our days, nostalgia is defined as a sentiment of displacement which is not necessarily related to a place. This seeming paradox explains why nostalgia may be related not to one?s own past, but rather to a feeling typical of modern times, which in Merton's case (as well as in many of his contemporaries) proved a force that prompted change in their surroundings, institutions and/or lives. In order to corroborate such a hypothesis, this paper reads some of Merton's texts applying the category of nostalgia, attempting to prove that Merton's was both reflective and restorative.