Overview

This volume analyzes how people of diverse cultural and religious backgrounds living around the “Middle Sea” perceived, felt, and described homesickness, using a multidisciplinary approach which brings new perspectives to known phenomena and their evolving meanings.

Content and Scope

The sixteen chapters in this book span the fields of history, literary and cultural studies, and musicology to explore and revisit old and new subjects including diasporas, renegades, expatriates, travelogues, testaments, inquisitorial processes, songbooks, movies, and photos. Together, they provide a comprehensive picture of homesickness across states, cultures, religions, and people, furthering understanding of how individuals, communities, and nations created and expressed images, ideas, and emotions on this subject. Though centered around the Mediterranean, this volume also studies the impact of homesickness in a larger geography touched by the Iberian empires.

Audience and Significance

This important contribution to the history of emotions offers studies on subjects seldom available in the English-speaking world and will appeal to undergraduates, postgraduates, scholars, and non-specialists alike.