Writing Widowhood

Jeffrey Berman is Distinguished Teaching Professor of English at the University at Albany, State University of New York. He is the author of many books, including Death in the Classroom: Writing about Love and Loss and Dying to Teach: A Memoir of Love, Loss, and Learning, both also published by SUNY Press.

• AcknowledgmentsIntroduction: "The Most Life-Changing Event"1. Joyce Carol Oates: A Widow’s Story2. Sandra M. Gilbert: Wrongful Death3. Gail Godwin: Evenings At Five4. Joan Didion: The Year of Magical Thinking and Blue Nights 5. Kay Redfield Jamison: Nothing Was the SameConclusion: Mourning SicknessWorks CitedIndex

"…an original and wide-ranging study that combines close reading, literary analysis, grief and trauma theory, and composition studies to explore the theme of grief and recovery across the memoirists' fictional and non-fictional writings … this book makes an important contribution to the field in that it defines and examines a new genre: 'the widowhood memoir.'" — Life Writing"Berman's study of women writing about their experiences of widowhood directs much-needed attention to this segment of memoir writing." — CHOICE"Writing Widowhood is a stunning achievement that combines biography, literary history, and theoretical and philosophical exploration into the nature of grief as well as mental illness—all seamlessly executed. Berman elegantly and lucidly conveys a range of theories and perspectives to suit both academic and general readers. Berman never compromises complexity while remaining accessible and straightforward throughout." — Virginia L. Blum, author of Flesh Wounds: The Culture of Cosmetic Surgery"Writing Widowhood contributes to the field of autobiography/biography, and particularly to women's writing within that generic field, by discussing five memoirs which Berman categorizes as the 'widow memoir.' No other critic that I know has shaped commentaries into a newly defined genre. Berman's book, thus, makes an important contribution to the overall field." — Linda Wagner-Martin, author of Telling Women's Lives: The New Biography