Abstract
Stories that elderly people tell about their lives often touch upon their experiences of a changing world and the ways in which people cope with different transformations. In her doctoral research, the author examines the life narrative of a female laborer, the author's grandmother Elsa Koskinen, born in 1927. Koskinen-Koivisto argues that nostalgia functions as a narrative strategy to highlight the importance of values such as social responsibility and togetherness. In addition, nostalgic narratives can be seen as reclamation of agency, an attempt to control change. This article examines nostalgia as a complex narrative strategy, paying attention to the situations in which nostalgia occurs in the interaction between two generations, and considers how the past is represented for younger generations and how the nostalgic reminiscence can be interpreted.
