My Ph.D. thesis reconstructs on a broad interdisciplinary scale the discursive, cultural and literary history of homesickness, which was considered a lethal disease between 1680 and 1930.

The first part of the book reconstructs the medical history of homesickness which was discovered (or invented) by the Swiss doctor Johannes Hofer in late 17th century Switzerland and was regarded for a long time a specific Swiss disease, a disease of soldiers. The 18th century presents itself as a period when this new discourse slowly stabilizes and at the same time becomes gradually an universal phenomenon. Especially in the first part of the 19th century it is widely discussed, e.g. by authors like Kant or Reil, but also by military doctors under Napoleon or in the Civil War. Due to a combination of discursive redundancy, social change and epistemic shifts, homesickness vanished as a medical category until 1930. It was then redefined as a mere ‘feeling’ or as a ‘depression’, a view predominant until now.

The second part of my monograph examines how this discursive knowledge is transformed into artistic or literary expressions. Music plays a key role here: The pathological definitions of a Swiss tune (ranz des vaches) as cause of homesickness were transformed into a narrative and aesthetic model which then was adapted by literature around 1800 (Tieck, Arnim/Brentano, Schiller). This connection between music and homesickness then enters diverse parts of 19th century culture and literature, such as staging political community (the Swiss Alphirtenfest), idyllic views of Switzerland (Weigl), metaphoric processes (Jean Paul) or concert music (Beethoven, Liszt, Meyerbeer, Wagner).

The third part of my book analyzes literary imaginations of this Swiss disease beyond the music narrative. After being excluded in most of 18th century German literature, homesickness became a key topic in 19th century literature: texts until 1830 (Brentano, Tieck, Chamisso or Robert) try to express the pathological dimension of homesickness which is then slowly discarded until 1900. Further chapters examine how religious concepts of transcendent longing are founded in medical thought; how the symptoms of dreams of home are used in Chamisso and Keller; how Spyri’s novel Heidi transforms the old discourse into a positive model for children; or finally an analysis of Tarkovskijs Nostalghia and Spielbergs E.T. as two ways of very late reception of this cultural knowledge on the disease homesickness.