The Pure Lover and the mature mourner: The literary expression of grief in David Plante’s memoir and its cultural, educational, and therapeutic significance

Abstract

ABSTRACT Among multiple grief narratives published in recent decades, The Pure Lover: A Memoir of Grief (2009) by David Plante stands out in its self-reflective and nonnormative approach to grief. Focusing on same-gender partner bereavement, this qualitative study explores the following areas: (1) the cultural, supportive, and egalitarian functions of the arts in The Pure Lover; (2) select grief approaches in the context of Plante’s memoir to illustrate and verify those approaches; and (3) the memoir as a cost-effective educational and bibliotherapeutic aid for those who support, care for, and work with older LGBTIQ+ grievers. Based on lived experience, grief memoirs, a sub-genre of life writing, constitute longitudinal narrative case studies. As such, they can help deconstruct normative viewpoints and promote the cultural significance of the arts in grief support; provide scholars with verifiable literary data to update bereavement concepts and theories, especially in such underexplored areas as bereavement in older LGBTIQ+ adults; boost a more ethical and inclusive approach to grief-stricken patients and clients; and provide a low-triggering bibliotherapeutic tool in bereavement.