Nostalgia in literature and memoir

It is not yet clear how nostalgia achieves the wide-ranging benefits on wellbeing documented by research. Much of the research favorable to nostalgia has employed experimental and quantitative methods within a laboratory setting. Literature and memoir offer a wider range of content for exploration into the complexity of nostalgia. Literature, memoir, and laboratory research have all illustrated the role of nostalgia in sustaining meaning, identity, and social connectedness. However, initial insights from this appraisal suggest a stronger emphasis in literary forms on the role of nostalgia in resolving conflict and coping with change and loss. Literary forms supplement laboratory efforts by providing a greater diversity of life experience and reflections that can yield more integrative syntheses over time.