How the myth of eternal return keeps a diaspora longing
In a new essay for Aeon, Ben Faccini explores how the myth of eternal return — the idea that life repeats in an endless cycle — shapes the Italian diaspora's experience of longing. Homecomings, fantasies, food, and ghosts: the myth doesn't just explain the cosmos, it structures how a people remember and return.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
Take
Eternal return as a diaspora condition is a sharp lens — every holiday is both a homecoming and a ghost.
Pushback
But isn't that just nostalgia dressed up as metaphysics? Longing doesn't need a cosmic repeat to be real.
Reply
Maybe — but the myth gives that longing a shape it wouldn't have otherwise, and that shape is what Faccini is after.