Creative and Aesthetic Ways of Grief

Mórna O’Connor, PhD, is a grief scholar specialising in digital-age grieving. Mórna’s work examines how grief is conceptualised, constructed and commodified in contemporary digital environments.Dorthe Refslund Christensen, PhD, is a grief scholar with an (auto)ethnographically based focus on ritualisations of death and loss and the embeddedness of individual’s grief repertoires in everyday life. Her work is both empirical and conceptual.

• Introduction Theme 1: The Role Of Community In Fostering Creative And Aesthetic Griefways 1. “Here Now, Sitting Alone”: Loss, Ghosteens And Trash-Speak In A Wounded Place 2. “Our Days Of Gold”: A Performative Approach To Mourning And The Re-Animation Of A Photographic Archive On Social Media 3. Creative Grief Practices: (Dis)Connections And Resonance In Online Grief Spaces 4. “We Now Belong To Each Other For The Rest Of Our Lives”: Ways Of Grief In An Extended Community Of Mourners Theme 2: DIY And Vernacular Creative Griefways 5. Improvising A Forest Practice: Encounters With A Miraculous Materiality 6. Narrating Nabber: The Creativity Of Posthumously Storying Complex People 7. “Mapping Love And Loss” 8. Funerals As Creative Spaces To Grieve And Remember Theme 3: The Aesthetics Of Potentiality, Dialogue And Openness In Grief 9. A Place Of Potentiality: Finding New Forms Of Dialogue In Grief Through Creativity 10. Gifts From Beyond The Grave: Exploring Creative Approaches To Grief Through Relationality And Exchange 11. Leaving Yourself Open: Ritualisations Of Resonance In Grief

"This anthology showcases many creative endeavors and rituals to create meaning and posthumous storied connections. While the book is filled with anthropological wisdom, readers will discover heartfelt, moving accounts throughout affirming how grief charts new pathways that stand against the Western misperceptions that relationships end at death."Lorraine Hedtke, MSW, ACSW, PhD, professor of counseling, California State University, San Bernardino, USA, and co-author (along with J. Winslade), of The Crafting of Grief"This book is a fascinating collection of stories, observations and reflections from the space where grief leaves us searching for new ways to understand our changed world: where we must learn anew 'how to be.' Bringing together ethnography, creativity, and reflection on using our senses when words fail us, the authors have crafted a rich and intriguing invitation to look, listen and live differently."Kathryn Mannix, author, end-of-life-care campaigner and retired palliative physician, Northumberland, UK"This beautifully crafted collection of multi-disciplinary, creative workings challenges the reader to reimagine grief and to embrace the creative possibilities it affords. Each story is carefully and sensitively told, through words and imagery, resulting in accounts that are intellectually stimulating, emotionally engaging, uplifting, and life affirming."Gayle Letherby, visiting professor, Plymouth, Greenwich, Bath, UK