Designing a Divorce Biography

Abstract

Chapter 2 outlines the theoretical framework of this study and discusses the key concepts addressed in this book. I unpack the theoretical concept of divorce biography, underscoring the importance of a biographical approach in understanding the experience of divorce. Arguing that divorce should not be seen as just an isolated legal act to dissolve a marriage, I offer an analytical framework to show how divorce needs to be understood as a process and journey where individuals work out different aspects of their post-divorce lives, experience both periods of precariousness and productivity and make decisions on future trajectories and plans. This framework will inform the empirical case studies presented in the remainder of the book. In this chapter, I uncover the elements of a divorce biography to suggest ways we could understand the experience of divorce. First, I engage with theoretical discussions on individualisation and transformation of intimacy, and suggest that the divorced individual exercises individual choice to design what I call a divorce biography to deal with the aftermath of divorce and take charge of their post-divorce lives. Second, I show that the construction of a divorce biography is not solely based on liberal individualistic ideals but also based on the meanings divorcees draw from the community and context they live in. I suggest that divorcees’ personal and family life continues to thrive in diverse configurations despite the breakdown of their marriage. Third, I argue that the experience of divorce is not all debilitating; the construction of a divorce biography includes not just managing undesirable after-effects and undergoing periods of precariousness, but also pursuing and achieving productivity in different aspects of post-divorce lives. Lastly, I show how divorce biographies are complex, non-standardised and diverse; they are not just a single story of devastation and tragedy as commonly perceived.