Manifestations of "Nostalgia" in Contemporary Algerian Poetic Discourse A Critical Study of Memory, Yearning, and Evocation in the Collection Fields of Violets by Poet Lakhdar Fellous

Abstract

This study explores the manifestations of nostalgia in contemporary Algerian poetic discourse, focusing on the collection Fields of Violets (1990) by poet Lakhdar Fellous as an applied model. Employing a descriptive-analytical approach that combines semiotics and literary criticism, the research investigates how nostalgia transforms from a mere passing psychological emotion into a complex poetic and semantic structure. The analysis covers five main axes: personal memory, collective memory, heritage intertextuality, nostalgic symbols, and the language of evocation. The study concludes that nostalgia in Fellous’s poetry transcends negative or pathological longing, emerging instead as a "creative force" and a will to survive. By invoking childhood memories, feelings of alienation, lost civilizations, and shared human pain through intense symbolic language and profound intertextuality, the poet reconstructs the past not as a retreat, but as an aesthetic and objective mechanism to confront the present and its challenges.