Identity and Post-Mortem Relationships in the Narratives of British and Japanese Mourners

Bibliographic Data

ID3155641
AuthorsColby Valentine (0000-0001-9771-0401, University of Bath, corresponding author), Christine Valentine (University of Bath)
Year2013
Volume61
Issue2
Pages383-401
Publication date2013-05-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThe Sociological Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-0261 • E-ISSN: 1467-954X
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/1467-954x.12022
OpenAlexW1704356479
LanguageEN
Citations received7
References cited24

Drawing on the 'affective turn' in the social sciences, this paper demonstrates the value of studying responses to death and loss in illuminating the role of the body and emotions in managing identities in contemporary societies. Looking across cultures at an experience that may threaten identity and continuity of being provides a broader, more complex and nuanced picture of social identity and participation in society. In focusing on societies with contrasting models of identity, it considers the implications of an emphasis on individualism in Britain and interdependency in Japan for rebuilding identity in each context. Drawing on qualitative interviews with British and Japanese mourners, the paper illustrates how continuing relationships with deceased loved ones were key to mourners' attempts to repair shattered identities. In particular, it examines the affective nature of post-mortem relationships and the way mourners managed these through situated 'affective practices'. In breaching the boundaries between the living and the dead, these practices revealed intersubjective, dynamic and shifting experiences of embodiment and identity that may be obscured by more dominant cultural scripts. As such, these practices raise ontological and epistemological questions about how mourning and social being are theorized

Aesthetics · Context (archaeology) · Identity (music) · Individualism · Interdependence · Narrative · Political science · Situated · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · Grief, Bereavement, and Mental Health · History · Law · Migration, Refugees, and Integration