Framework version 1.2

For centuries, people have recreated Mermaids in music. Apparently, there is ‘something’ about them that keeps us fascinated. How come? In my research project, I will develop a theoretical framework for analysing music about Mermaids, to gain a better understanding of the feelings of longing and belonging this musics evoke. This is my version 1.2, but I fear that I am still to much a 'binary thinker' to handle this ambiguous concepts...

Space	Place
Longing	Belonging
Individual identity	Group identity
Dream / supernatural	Real world
Fairy tale	Daily life
Desire	Fear
Freedom	Safety / control

I expect these ambiguities will in the end merge in what Bhabha calls ‘Unhomeliness’ - a feeling which has to do with becoming a stranger in a once familiar place, and sliding into a liminal space and time where other paradigmatic concepts such as the public and the private, or the political and the personal become mixed. Presumably because of its status as a paradigmatic condition, one cannot adequately pin down unhomeliness, but this concept might well be the key to answering some of my questions.