Interpreting ‘grief’ in Senegal: language, emotions and cross-cultural translation in a francophone African context

Abstract

She was Co-investigator for the Death in the Family in Urban Senegal research project. Her research interests focus on people's family lives and relationships, experiences and forms of relationality as these are shaped across global and local contexts, and by gender and generation, including aspects of emotions and embodiment. See: http://www.open.ac.uk/people/jcrm2.

Producing emotionally sensed knowledge? Reflexivity and emotions in researching responses to death

“…Hubbard et al (2001) This article draws on our experiences of conducting cross-cultural qualitative research on responses to death, care and family relations in urban Senegal 3 . The study aimed to investigate the material and emotional significance of a death of a close adult relative for family members of different genders and generations, focusing predominantly on the three largest ethnic groups (see Evans et al, 2016).…”

Interpreting ‘grief’ in Senegal: language, emotions and cross-cultural translation in a francophone African context

“…From a different disciplinary perspective, linguists ask whether and how words, as cognitive ways of framing the world, ©Evans et al, 21/12/16. Please cite as: Evans, R. Ribbens McCarthy, J., Bowlby, S., Wouango, J. and Kébé, F. (2017) Interpreting 'grief' in Senegal: language, emotions and cross-cultural translation in a francophone African context, Mortality, 22, Special issue on Researching Death, Dying and Bereavement. can be said to convey particular emotions in all their cultural embeddedness (Palmer and Occhi, 1999).…”

“…However, they linked this to the emotional aspects of bereavement and the loss of a close relationship with a significant other with ©Evans et al, 21/12/16. Please cite as: Evans, R. Ribbens McCarthy, J., Bowlby, S., Wouango, J. and Kébé, F. (2017) Interpreting 'grief' in Senegal: language, emotions and cross-cultural translation in a francophone African context, Mortality, 22, Special issue on Researching Death, Dying and Bereavement.…”

“…While we recognise that these terms are problematic, ©Evans et al, 21/12/16. Please cite as: Evans, R. Ribbens McCarthy, J., Bowlby, S., Wouango, J. and Kébé, F. (2017) Interpreting 'grief' in Senegal: language, emotions and cross-cultural translation in a francophone African context, Mortality, 22, Special issue on Researching Death, Dying and Bereavement. since all dichotomised terms risk homogenising and obscuring complex and extensive diversities, the terms nevertheless can help to shift the balance of worldviews that frequently privilege 'western' and 'northern' perspectives (Punch, 2003).…”

“…©Evans et al, 21/12/16. Please cite as: Evans, R. Ribbens McCarthy, J., Bowlby, S., Wouango, J. and Kébé, F. (2017) Interpreting 'grief' in Senegal: language, emotions and cross-cultural translation in a francophone African context, Mortality, 22, Special issue on Researching Death, Dying and Bereavement.  Consider how far responses to death have been understood through Anglophone assumptions and theoretical perspectives, bound up in the English language.…”