Homesickness is a predominantly positive emotion with a bittersweet edge. It contains happiness, but also a sense of guilt, sometimes irritation, and a certain amount of loss. Today we are eager to travel and we yearn for a sense of space. We are fearful of 'home-boundedness', that is of 'being tied to a place and barred from exit' (Bauman 1996, p31). This calls into question our previous understanding of homesickness, for now the term can equally contain an opposite meaning to what was once the case. - Jenny Lu
