Opening the Door of the Haunted House: An Inquiry of the Nostalgic Experience

The article explores nostalgia as a cognitive and affective mechanism of memory aimed at the restoration and healing of one’s Self and developing knowledge of one’s Self by means of involving oneself in the individual or collective past. Employing method of narrative inquiry with the elements of autobiographical inquiry and fiction writing, the article focuses primarily on the individual nostalgic experience unlike nostalgia as a collective phenomenon. The article relies on interpretative analysis of the author’s short stories, selected diary entries, interviews with female immigrants in Colombia and travel blog entries in the broader context of the sociological, psychological and philosophical studies of memory and nostalgia and literary and cinematic works that explore the relevant topics.