Expression Of Grief Research Articles

The Language of Grief: The Role of Conceptual Metaphors in Family Tributes of Ghanaian Funeral Ceremonies

Abstract This paper investigates the role of conceptual metaphors in the expression of grief by bereaved families during Ghanaian funeral ceremonies. Grief is a universal and inevitable response to loss or the anticipation of it, yet its manifestation varies among different cultures and individuals. In Ghanaian funeral ceremonies, tributes hold significant importance as they provide a platform for family members to publicly convey their emotions and memories associated with the deceased. Tribute texts gathered from twenty funeral brochures were analysed using the Pragglejaz Group’s Metaphor Identification Procedure (mip). The analysis revealed the utilisation of twelve distinct conceptual metaphors related to life and death, marriage, and memories and emotions. Two image metaphors about the deceased were also identified. The analysis reveals that families employ conceptual and image metaphors – to offer consolation, provide encouragement, express appreciation for the deceased’s life, engage in reminiscence, honour and celebrate the departed souls.

Musical enchantment. Affective pragmatics and the making of intersubjective grief in lăutari funeral performance

This paper contributes to the expanding body of ltierature on affective performance by examining, from a semiotic perspective, the role of live musicians (lăutari) in the expression and shaping of grief during funeral ceremonies among members of the Roma in Romania. By conducting de detailed analysis of two funeral performances by Florin Salam, drawn from publicly available sources, this study illustrates how musicians utilize lyrical content with inherent affective potency, and exploit sound iconicity to imbue their vocal communication with emotional resonance. Additionally, the paper explores the use of various forms of pronominal deictic ambiguity by musicians, enabling them to indirectly engage either the entire audience or specific individuals. I show how the pragmatic function of the verbal and non-verbal strategies employed by performers is to transform the affective potentiality of a funeral event into actualized emotions. Furthermore, I emphasize the influence of local social aesthetics on both the actions of musicians and the modes through which participants articulate their emotions. Ultimately, I argue that the emotional impact of an affectively charged performance emerges from a confluence of factors, including vocal technique, discursive practices, musical instrumentation, and social dynamics. This paper contributes to the expanding body of ltierature on affective performance by examining, from a semiotic perspective, the role of live musicians (lăutari) in the expression and shaping of grief during funeral ceremonies among members of the Roma in Romania. By conducting de detailed analysis of two funeral performances by Florin Salam, drawn from publicly available sources, this study illustrates how musicians utilize lyrical content with inherent affective potency, and exploit sound iconicity to imbue their vocal communication with emotional resonance. Additionally, the paper explores the use of various forms of pronominal deictic ambiguity by musicians, enabling them to indirectly engage either the entire audience or specific individuals. I show how the pragmatic function of the verbal and non-verbal strategies employed by performers is to transform the affective potentiality of a funeral event into actualized emotions. Furthermore, I emphasize the influence of local social aesthetics on both the actions of musicians and the modes through which participants articulate their emotions. Ultimately, I argue that the emotional impact of an affectively charged performance emerges from a confluence of factors, including vocal technique, discursive practices, musical instrumentation, and social dynamics

Men's Experiences With Perinatal Loss: An Integrative Review.

Introduction: Perinatal loss is a tremendous loss for many and can have consequences that affect physical and mental health. This topic has been substantially examined among women; however, men's experiences with perinatal loss have lacked attention. Many men report significant grief, self-blame, stigma, loss of self-identity, lack of recognition of their loss, marginalization, and gendered expectations that negate their grieving process. This places men at risk for complicated or disenfranchised grief. Most studies examining perinatal loss have been conducted in countries outside of the United States and outside of the discipline of nursing. As nurses are concerned about holistic care of men and women, the findings resulting from studies with women and other cultural perspectives may not be generalizable to men in the United States. Purpose: The purpose of this integrative review was to examine the current state of science regarding men's experiences with perinatal loss, what is known about this loss within the nursing discipline, to identify gaps in nursing knowledge, and to expose areas for further research. Method: Online databases including CINAHL, PubMed, and Scopus were used to perform the initial search. The search terms included "men," "perinatal loss," "miscarriage," "stillbirth," and "grief." Results: Themes were identified through a review of the literature that included that men experienced a loss of the role of fatherhood and identity. Additionally, men reported expectations about socially and gender-specific behavior that influenced their expressions of grief and their coping process. Finally, the lack of recognition of their loss as fathers in perinatal loss resulted in the marginalization and the use of avoidance and distraction to cope with the loss, as well as risks to the health of the partnered relationship.

Digital Expressions of Grief and Mourning between Music, Language and Speechlessness

A variety of music videos are available on the video platform YouTube, many of which can be commented on. This paper focuses on a certain type of commentary that links a piece of music with memories of deceased relatives or friends. For some users, listening to particular pieces of music consciously, after the experience of a personal loss, appears to be a self-chosen form of processing emotions, which may then be shared anonymously with others in the comment section. These forms of remembrance in turn often garner responses in the anonymity of the comment section voicing sympathy, empathy or one’s own memories. The paper presents linguistic patterns of this digital mourning and the chosen linguistic forms of reactions. This qualitative analysis draws on the comment section of music videos on YouTube, followed by a methodological discussion of the role of music in this »multimodal ensemble« (Stöckl 2019, p. 60) with respect to emotions.

Memorialising Keats: Severn, Headstones and Hyperion

For obvious reasons, Keats's biographers have focused primarily on the last five months of the poet’s life and on the making of his reputation in the later nineteenth century. They have spent very little time, however, on the two uncertain years that followed the poet’s death when his legacy, largely in the hands of Brown, Taylor and Severn, hung in the balance. As Severn was recovering from Keats's death, he fought to establish his own livelihood as a painter and find an adequate means of memorialising his friend. He was preoccupied with two works of art, The Death of Alcibiades and the headstone for Keats's grave. I argue that these artworks represent complex expressions of Severn's grief and in this sense are both memorials, though Alcibiades disguises its aims in a conventional historical painting. In the strong reading of Hyperion embedded in the picture, Severn finds a way of coming to terms with the traumatic aftermath of Keats's death as well as the critical attacks on his poetry. My recent rediscovery of two key manuscript letters of this time by members of the Keats Circle lends support to the argument.

Mourning for Strangers: Black Women, Sequelae, and the Digital Afterlife of Police Violence

Based on 32 in-depth interviews with black women, this paper analyzes the racialized and gendered impact of vicarious exposure to police encounters on social media. We draw from Smith’s (2016) sequelae to describe the lingering effects of anti-black state violence, particularly grief and mourning. For Black women, the manifestation of sequelae from online exposure includes: a) amplification of police brutality, b) identification with victims, c) expressions of grief, and d) prolonged mourning. We argue research should contend with the digital landscape when examining psychological effects of police violence to understand anti-black police violence’s impact on gendered racial mental health disparities.

Unheard and Unseen: Exploring the Disenfranchisement of Perinatal Loss in North-Indian Men

Mental distress is recognised as common following perinatal loss. But often, existing literature and bereavement care standards focus on women, leaving a gap in understanding men’s grief. This qualitative study examined the emotional experiences of males from some Northern states of India, who had experienced perinatal loss, with a focus on grief disenfranchisement. Eleven participants were interviewed using a semi-structured guide. Thematic analysis unveiled themes on the intersection of religiosity and grief, social structuring of grief patterns, gender-based grieving, inhibited expression of grief in men, disenfranchisement of grief, self-focused coping, coping with the help of others, and interpersonal barriers to emotional disclosure. The findings provide valuable insights, helping mental health practitioners better understand men’s experiences of perinatal loss and develop more effective support strategies.

"I hate you. I love you. I'm sorry. I miss you." Understanding Online Grief Expression Through Suicide Bereavement Letter-Writing Practices

When bereaved individuals seek online support in response to the suicide of a loved one, their expressions of grief take many forms. Although the intense grief expressions individuals bereaved by suicide commonly share in private therapeutic settings can be helpful in healing from traumatic loss, these same expressions may potentially cause harm to others when shared in a public online support community. In this study, we present a qualitative analysis of letters posted on the r/SuicideBereavement subreddit, and comments replying to those posts, to explore what diverse expressions of grief additionally demand of platform design. We find that letter posts contain potentially harmful grief expressions that, in this community, generate mutual support among community members. Informed by our findings, this study considers the design challenges for online platforms as they simultaneously support users receiving support and healing through sharing certain grief expressions, while also supporting users who will be harmed by exposure to those grief expressions. Taking inspiration from offline therapy modalities, we consider the design implications of creating specialized online grief support spaces for diverse grief expressions.

Climate change, cultural continuity and ecological grief: Insights from the Sámi Homeland

Arctic regions are warming significantly faster than other parts of the globe, leading to changes in snow, ice and weather conditions, ecosystems and local cultures. These changes have brought worry and concern and triggered feelings of loss among Arctic Indigenous Peoples and local communities. Recently, research has started to address emotional and social dimensions of climate change, framed through the concept of ecological grief. In this study, we examine sociocultural impacts of climate change and expressions of ecological grief among members of reindeer herding communities in the Sámi Homeland in Finland. Results indicate that ecological grief is felt in connection to major environmental concerns in the area: changes in winter weather and extreme weather events, Atlantic salmon decline and land use changes, which all have cultural and social consequences. Our results indicate that ecological grief is strongly associated with ecological losses, but also with political decisions regarding natural resource governance.

The Crying Statue in Early Qing Drama

Should the theatrical fantasy of a statue coming to life involve an actor performing the role of a thing, or a prop taking the place of a human? Proceeding from contests between Hong Sheng 洪昇 (1645–1704) and acting troupes over the staging of the “Crying Statue” 哭像 (Kuxiang) scene in his dramatic masterpiece Palace of Lasting Life (Changsheng dian 長生殿), this article examines how the figure of the living icon became a focal point in broader struggles to conceptualize the relationship between theater and rituals of mourning. Actors staged this complicated scene as an “auspicious sacrifice” (jiji 吉祭), one that foregrounds the transcendence of love over lifeless matter. Hong, conversely, insists on the function of the scene as an “unpropitious rite” (xiongdian 凶奠), a solemn meditation on mortality and the collective expression of grief. By redirecting focus from the object to the space and social dynamics of mourning, Hong questions the drive to bestow on things a life that is not their own.

Life Writing at the Terminus: Glacier Memoirs and Planetary Relationality

This essay examines the American glaciologist M Jackson’s While Glaciers Slept: Being Human in a Time of Climate Change and The Secret Lives of Glaciers; the British glaciologist Jemma Wadham’s Ice Rivers: A Story of Glaciers, Wilderness, and Humanity; and the Icelandic writer Andri Snær Magnason’s On Time and Water, all of which employ autobiographical discourse to convey the enormity of the climate crisis as it is manifested in the rapidly accelerating loss of Earth’s glacial ice. I discuss these writers’ accounts of their turn to life writing to augment the limited persuasive force scientific data, their scaling of the temporality of glacier recession to the time spans of their own lives, their attribution of sentience to glaciers through an engagement with non-Anglo-European worldviews, and their expressions of grief at the impending death of Earth’s glaciers. I suggest that these texts demonstrate how the distinctive truth claims, temporal modalities, subject-positioning strategies, and affective appeals of life narrative provide a particularly supple hermeneutic schema in which an understanding of the moral ramifications of humans’ mutually dependent relationships with more-than-human nature - what Amy J. Elias and Christian Moraru have described as ‘a planetary ethics of relationality’ - might be fostered.

The Art of Dying in a Digital World: How Death is Represented in Digital Art

With the rise of computing, human rituals and cultural practices have increasingly interwoven with digital technologies. In this milieu, the cultural facets of death and art are particularly noteworthy. The realm of art has undergone a seismic shift due to computing, developing new artistic forms and enhancing the reach of older forms. Concurrently, aspects of death are now integrated into digital technologies, manifesting in unique ways such as the retention of data from the deceased, digital expressions of grief, online memorials, and the like. In light of this, our fundamental, qualitative, and exploratory study endeavors to map out and discuss digital art pieces that delve into themes of death, mourning, and digital afterlife. In doing so, we probe the intersection of art, death, and technology. Our findings delineate the primary methodologies and technologies employed in digital art centered around death, and the nuanced modalities through which this subject is portrayed in digital media.

Mind Yourself So You Can Mind Me; The Role of Parental Behaviour in Perinatal Death on the Surviving Sibling's Grief.

Children's grief, in perinatal loss, can be misunderstood and overlooked. Parental behaviour while mourning infant loss and parental ability to respond to their own grief has a crucial role in the child's grief. This study aimed to explore parental behaviour as a determining factor in siblings' grief following perinatal death. Six mothers and two fathers experiencing perinatal loss were interviewed about their perception of the child's experience of perinatal death. Thematic analysis allowed for identifying of relevant themes. The main themes related to parents' expression of grief, insight and understanding of their children's grief and communicating the death/anticipated death with their surviving children. Findings showed that children seek out information on their deceased sibling and need supportive parents to guide them through their grief. Our study highlights that supporting parents in their grief is a key factor for a healthy grieving process in children and must be considered when supporting families in perinatal death.

Minor Settler Grief: Korean Diaspora, Settler Colonialism, and the Pastoral Fantasy in Minari (2021)

Abstract: The critically acclaimed film Minari (2021), directed by Lee Isaac Chung, has been recognized for its emotionally moving on-screen representation of a rural Asian American experience. Building on transpacific scholarship, the present essay examines Minari as a narrative of "minor settler grief," an expression of grief by minor settlers that is closely tied to colonial and militarized aesthetics of earth across the Pacific. The article ties Minari's Korean American farming efforts in 1980s Arkansas to the intersecting histories of settler colonialism in the US and Japanese empires and South Korean authoritarian developmentalism. It considers the Korean nativist aesthetics of earth at work in Minari , an aesthetics of pastoral fantasy that had served imperialism and authoritarian developmentalism, as well as anticolonial imaginations in modern Korea and the diaspora. The essay argues that minor settler grief functions by obscuring relationalities, such as the histories of Native American removal in present-day Arkansas. Mining these histories and visual references enables a critique of certain expressions of grief that produce settler colonial recognition and forgetting.

Protest Anthems as Songs of Mourning: Feminist Activism Through Collective Expressions of Grief

This article explores the multifaceted role of protest anthems in social movements, emphasizing their dual function as powerful expressions and integral components of socio-political activism within the broader context of symbolic forms, political practices, and material realities, while acknowledging their potential to drive political change. The study examines three feminist protest anthems: Un violador en tu camino from Chile, Baraye from Iran, and Quiet from the United States, which have gained traction through social media platforms. The study draws on trauma, collective identity, and feminist solidarity to reveal the social and political landscapes in which these anthems emerged. It also examines the social wounds they mourn, the blend of verbal and non-verbal elements used to convey mourning and trauma, the collective responses they provoke, and their implications for communities. The article argues that feminist protest anthems are vital cultural and political artifacts that offer feminist collectives a means to address social injuries and their causes, fostering communities and catalyzing social change by invoking shared experiences of a painful past. Ultimately, these protest anthems are discursive practices promoting solidarity, mobilizing against prevailing discourses perpetuating societal injuries.

Diagnosen Prolonged Grief Disorder ændrer forståelsen af sorg - en diskursanalyse i et sygeplejefagligt perspektiv

The purpose of the article is to create a foundation on which the profession can begin its professional approach to the diagnosis of grief and what opportunities and limitations this holds from a nursing perspective. Background We are witnessing a historic change in the way grief is practiced in connection with death, as the diagnosis "Prolonged Grief Disorder" appears in the diagnosis manual ICD-11 that appears in the latest version published in 2022. Nurses are considered central actors in the practice of the grief diagnosis. Either in relation to preventive measures or by identifying those suffering from complicated grief by referring them to appropriate services. Method A Foucault-inspired discourse analysis has been prepared, exploring how the expression of grief has changed and which societal conditions have supported the change. Results Pervasive patterns are identified, which are regarded as three discursive strategies; A love discourse, a psychological adaptation discourse and a diagnostic discourse. Conclusion Societal ideals have supported the change in the articulation of grief. Nurses can use the insight into this historical development as well as the critical view built on a social constructivist point of view as a foundation for positioning themselves scientifically in this field.

On the concept, taxonomy, and transculturality of disordered grief.

The enduring question of whether grief can ever be pathological (and, if so, when) has been shrouding mental health and psychiatric care over the last few years. While this discussion extends beyond the confines of psychiatry to encompass contributions from diverse disciplines such as Anthropology, Sociology, and Philosophy, scrutiny has been mainly directed toward psychiatry for its purported inclination to pathologize grief-an unavoidable facet of the human experience. This critique has gained particular salience considering the formal inclusion of prolonged grief disorder (PGD) in the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) and the subsequent Text Revision 5th Edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5-TR). This study contends that the inclusion of prolonged grief disorder as a diagnostic entity may be excessively rooted in Western cultural perspectives and empirical data, neglecting the nuanced variations in the expression and interpretation of grief across different cultural contexts. The formalization of this disorder not only raises questions about its universality and validity but also poses challenges to transcultural psychiatry, due to poor representation in empirical research and increased risk of misdiagnosis. Additionally, it exacerbates the ongoing concerns related to normativism and the lack of genuine cultural relativism within the DSM. Furthermore, the passionate discussion surrounding the existence, or not, of disordered forms of grief may actually impede effective care for individuals genuinely grappling with pathological forms of grief. In light of these considerations, this study proposes that prolonged grief disorder should be approached as a diagnostic category with potential Western cultural bias until comprehensive cross-cultural studies, conducted in diverse settings, can either substantiate or refute its broader applicability. This recalibration is imperative for advancing a more inclusive and culturally sensitive understanding of grief within the field of psychiatry.

Caregiver behaviors associated with positive youth development among bereaved children

Grounded in Multidimensional Grief Theory, this study examined the cross-sectional associations between child-reported caregiver grief facilitation behaviors (ongoing connection, grief expression, existential continuity and support, grief inhibition/avoidance) and positive youth development outcomes (future orientation, gratitude, social responsibility) in treatment-seeking bereaved children ages 7 to 18 (N = 170; 54.1% girls; 35.9% Hispanic/Latinx, 24.9% White, 17.8% Black) from the United States. Results indicate that higher levels of perceived caregiver existential continuity and support (behaviors theorized to promote the continuity of child routines and reassurance of a positive future after experiencing a death) were associated with greater future orientation and social responsibility values among participants. Findings suggest that in the wake of a death, structured and supportive caregiver responses may be related to children’s positive outlook on their future and commitment to others.

Weeping out Loud:

Lamenting is a bodily experience, a means of expressing grief or sorrow, involving the shedding of tears and crying while singing. It stands as a deeply communal expression of grief and other profound emotions. This tradition is global and has been found in different parts of the world, from rural China (McLaren 2008) to Bangladesh (Wilce 2009) and from Ireland (McLaughlin 2019) to Greece (Caraveli-Chaves 1980). While some variation exists across traditions, a common thread worldwide is that laments have predominantly been oral traditions among women (McLaren 2008, 2). In this article, we look at the learning process of lamenting in contemporary Finland from a bodily and experiential perspective using somatics and somaesthetics as our framework.

Is Wilfred Owen’s “Anthem for Doomed Youth” an Anti-Elegy? A Comparison with Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard”

Wilfred Owen’s famous “Anthem for Doomed Youth” is often read as a critical response to the elegiac tradition. However, a close comparison with Thomas Gray’s “Elegy Written in a Country Church Yard” reveals a surprising amount of continuity and common language. Both poets capture the plight of those who have been forgotten or have been condemned to die a meaningless death. Both stress the poignancy of the ephemeral expressions of grief on the faces of loved ones. By contrast, traditional forms of commemoration feel increasingly hollow and inadequate. “Anthem for Doomed Youth” is therefore much more than an anti-elegy. Since the genre inherently questions the limits of its own usefulness, Owen builds on the work of previous poets, including Gray.