Discourses on Death

Obituaries and the Management of Spoiled Identity

Bibliographic Data

ID13629178
AuthorsJoyce E Williams (Texas Woman's University, Denton, corresponding author)
Year1997
Volume34
Issue4
Pages301-319
Publication date1997-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueOMEGA - Journal of Death and Dying (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0030-2228 • E-ISSN: 1541-3764
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.2190/arm6-mqer-cypv-t3w5
OpenAlexW2045711478
LanguageEN
Citations received9
References cited6

What do obituaries disclose about the death of persons who die of AIDS or where AIDS-related death is indicated? Obituaries meeting pre-established criteria were collected from a major metropolitan newspaper for a sixteen-month period in 1992 and 1993. A total of 184 obituaries were collected, content analyzed, and broken into three disclosure categories based on: 1) AIDS-related complications as published cause of death, 2) same-sex partner named as survivor, and 3) association with the AIDS cause or with the gay community. All three categories are stigmatized in the context of today's social norms. Discourse analysis revealed similarities and differences in topical and in subtextual themes and in varying degrees of identity management for the three categories. Descriptive findings suggest areas for further research and reveal much about the public management of death to counter the social stigma of “spoiled identity.”

Art · Content analysis · Context (archaeology · Identity (music · Media studies · Newspaper · Psychiatry · Social science · Sociology · Stigma (botany · Terror management theory · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · History · Homelessness and Social Issues · LGBTQ Health, Identity, and Policy · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub