In 1688 the Swiss doctor Johannes Hofer published a tract in which, after consider ing the terms nostomania and philopatridomania, he settles on a combination of the Greek words nostos and algos to describe the pain resulting from the desire to return to one's home (381). Thus the word nostalgia was born, in a text claiming that a properly scientific term was lacking in order to accurately identify a condition that Hofer insisted was a clinical entity and, as such, was above all of medical interest. Throughout eighteenth-century Europe the word would gradually be adopted by specialists and laypeople alike to describe a disease provoked by excessive attachment to a distant homeland, a condition at first thought to be common particularly among natives of mountainous regions. By the end of the eighteenth century, the notion was expanded to include pathological attachment to any faraway place and, later, to distant times and persons. The fact that Hofer considered previously existing terms to be inadequate and felt the need to create an entirely new word, a word that, in turn, gained increasing currency in Europe, suggests that something new-a new way of feeling or a new way of thinking about an old feeling-was entering the world. Indeed, it will be argued here that nostalgia is a distinctly modern word, an idea dependent on a way of worlding that is distinctive to modernity. In due time, the disease came to be associated increasingly with groups-Marcos Piason Natali is a professor in the Department of Literary Theory and Comparative Literature at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil. His dissertation, defended at the University of Chicago in 2000, is entitled "The Politics of Nostalgia: An Essay on Ways of Relating to the Past."

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ResumoPartindo da leitura de um trecho da Circonfissão de Jacques Derrida, o trabalho revisita a questão do sacrifício, agora tendo em vista sua possível contribuição para uma reflexão sobre os estudos literários no presente. Se o sacrifício é o anúncio de uma escolha, a estrutura sacrificial pode ser útil para pensar a literatura em suas relações com demandas de diversas naturezas, ressaltando eventuais semelhanças entre a teoria literária e a teologia em suas respostas à diferença. A leitura do livro de Derrida, texto escrito durante doença de sua mãe, permite que se avalie como o autor imagina que a literatura responde a dilemas éticos presentes na escrita de qualquer texto.Palavras-chave: conceito de literatura, Jacques Derrida, sacrifício.Keywords: concept of literature, Jacques Derrida, sacrifice.Mots-cles: concept de littérature, Jacques Derrida, sacrifice. AbstractDrawing on a reading of an excerpt from Jacques Derrida's Circonfession, the paper revisits the question of sacrifice, exploring in this case its possible contributions to a reflection on contemporary literary studies. If sacrifice is the declaration of a choice, the sacrificial structure may be useful in thinking about literature and its relations with demands of different sorts, highlighting possible similarities between literary theory and theology in their responses to difference. Reading Derrida's book, a text written during an illness endured by his mother, allows the paper to evaluate how literature responds to the ethical dilemmas present in every text. RésuméA partir de la lecture d'un extrait de Circonfession de Jacques Derrida, ce travail reprend la question du sacrifice pour y évaluer maintenant une contribution possible pour une réflexion sur les études littéraires aujourd'hui. Si le sacrifice est l'annonce d'un choix, la structure sacrificielle peut s'avérer utile pour penser la littérature dans ses relations avec les demandes de diverses natures, moyennant la mise en valeur d'éven-tuelles similitudes entre la théorie littéraire et la théologie dans leurs réponses à la différence. La lecture du livre de Derrida, texte écrit pendant la maladie de sa mère, permet d'évaluer dans quelle mesure l'auteur imagine que la littérature répond aux dilemmes éthiques présents dans l'écriture de tout texte. marcos p. natali | o sacrifício da literatura

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