MEGATRENDS AND MEDIA

TRANSCULTURAL COMMUNICATION AND MEDIA ART
F/ Type of occurrence: rhetoric
“In this love of the remote, even the famous saudade, which is inherent
to this earth and its inhabitants, may ind its origin. It is nostalgia for
an adventurous past, but, at the same time, for future that inds its full
expression in realizing the potentialities that were left behind by this
past.” 37
Table 7 (F)
Topic Sources Triggers Mode of
expression
Portuguese
epic on
Sebastian
love to the
distant
contemporary
wanderlust
method of
analogy
Object
adventurous past,
future capitalizing the
potentialities of the
past
3.2 Rationality versus emotional effervescence
In Maffesoli’s concepts, the contours of the dichotomy of the past and the
present are markedly distinctive. According to his thesis, we are entering
the era of the postmodern that succeeds the period of the modern,
which was dominated by the paradigm of individualism subordinated to
rational logic. From the perspective of the discourse on nostalgia, we can
state that this dichotomy is largely expressed through the perception of
history. Maffesoli claims that the perception of history as a project or
that the belief that history has a meaning has been overcome. He also
disclaims the teleological and soteriological ideas of history (C). The
concept of nomadism and the related forms declaring dynamism, nonconformity
or perpetual motion present a counterweight to economic
morality (B).
3.3 Idealization
Our research proved that Maffesoli looks back to the past towards cultures
and civilizations that had an important role and seeks to resurrect them
in the conditions of the present. The fact that he idealizes the cultural
formations of the past as genuine expressions of the joys of life, which he
sees as a source of social coherence, points towards nostalgic reaction.
On the other hand, this aspect of sociality is some kind of an ideal within
37 MAFFESOLI, M.: O nomádství. Iniciační toulky. Praha : Prostor, 2002, p. 64.
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