The Grief Account: Dimensions of a Contemporary Bereavement Genre

Dennis, Michael Robert

doi:10.1080/07481180801928980

Cited by 15 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…Bregman & Thiermann, 1995;Dennis, 2008). Data consist of presentations of ADCs in 20 book-length grief narratives published between 1961 and 2006.…”

Section: Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ghosts, Meaning, and Faith: After-Death Communications in Bereavement Narratives

Kwilecki

2011

Death Studies

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After-death communications (ADCs) are reported encounters with a deceased loved one, a contemporary type of ghost experience heralded as therapeutic in coping with bereavement. Pertinent literature generally illustrates the healing power of ADCs with brief self-contained episodes. The functions of ADCs over the course of grief need exploration. To that end, this article analyzes 20 published book-length autobiographical stories of bereavement in which authors report ADCs. Two functional patterns are identified--instantaneous relief from painful grief symptoms and reinforcement of a consoling religious worldview. The second dynamic links ADCs to meaning-making and religious coping within Christian and Spiritualist frameworks.

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“…Bregman & Thiermann, 1995;Dennis, 2008). Data consist of presentations of ADCs in 20 book-length grief narratives published between 1961 and 2006.…”

Section: Sourcesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ghosts, Meaning, and Faith: After-Death Communications in Bereavement Narratives

Kwilecki

2011

Death Studies

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“…Robert Neimeyer says symptoms are the "outward manifestations of distress associated with grieving can be understood only in terms of the struggle of bereaved people and their social domain to accommodate to a changed (inter)personal reality resulting from the loss" (2001, p. 4). Adrianne Kunkel and Michael Dennis (2003;Dennis, 2008) analyze genres of literature that are associated with grief: eulogies, elegies, letters of condolence, grief accounts in popular literature, memorial websites. They find that in the process of creating the literature, and in the process of sharing it, the community creates the meaning of the death and the continuing meaning of the deceased's life.…”

Section: Grief As a Biological Responsementioning

confidence: 99%

Grief, Consolation, and Religions: A Conceptual Framework

Klass

2014

Omega (Westport)

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Consolation is grief's traditional amelioration, but contemporary bereavement theory lacks a conceptual framework to include it. The article begins to develop that framework. The article argues that grief is inter-subjective, even at the biological level. Consolation and grief happen in the same inter-subjective space. Material from the histories of several religions sets the article in a cross-cultural and historical environment. The article examines consolation in interpersonal relationships, and then moves to consolation in cultural/religious resources that range from the literal image of God as an idealized parent to the abstract architecture of Brahm's Requiem. The most common consolation in the histories of religions comes within continuing bonds that are accessed in a wide variety of beliefs, rituals, and devotional objects. The article closes by briefly drawing the connection between consolation and faith.

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“…Psychological study might do well to expand. It might, for example, incorporate Adrianne Kunkel and Michael Dennis's nuanced the study of funeral literature like eulogies, elegies, memoirs, and memorials by which family and intimate groups create meaningful narratives (Dennis, 2008;Kunkel & Dennis, 2003). Tony Walter (2011) traced how a reality TV star who died transitioned into an angel in pop culture.…”

Section: So What's the Conclusion?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Continuing Bonds, Society, and Human Experience: Family Dead, Hostile Dead, Political Dead

Klass

2014

Omega (Westport)

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In most times and places, the focus of continuing bonds is on the well-being and activity of the dead that are linked to the well-being and activity of the living. In this article we describe continuing bonds across cultures by focusing on the dead. Three relationships between the living and the dead organize our thinking. First, the family dead in which living and dead offer help to each other. Second, the hostile dead that threaten the well being of the living. Third, the political dead in which the living enlisting the dead in political conflicts, and the dead motivate the living to battle on their behalf. Shifting the focus this way allows us to see that continuing bonds play important roles in larger narratives as well as in individual and family narratives.

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The Grief Account: Dimensions of a Contemporary Bereavement Genre

Cited by 15 publications

References 14 publications

Ghosts, Meaning, and Faith: After-Death Communications in Bereavement Narratives

Ghosts, Meaning, and Faith: After-Death Communications in Bereavement Narratives

Grief, Consolation, and Religions: A Conceptual Framework

Continuing Bonds, Society, and Human Experience: Family Dead, Hostile Dead, Political Dead

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