Narrative practices of death, dying and mourning

Giaxoglou, Korina (2025). Narrative practices of death, dying and mourning. In: Frick, Karina; Gröbel, Lea and Siever, Christina Margrit eds. Tod und Trauer – analog:digital: Linguistische und theologische Perspektiven. Sprache und Wissen (SuW). De Gruyter, pp. 117–137.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1515/9783111636108-006

URL: https://www.amazon.de/Tod-Trauer-Linguistische-the...

Abstract

Death in modern societies is often thought to be a taboo topic. This presentation challenges the popular thesis that ‘death is taboo’. It provides, instead, a contextualized and nuanced approach to practices of death, dying and mourning in digital contexts. It draws attention to (1) how, when, and why death, dying and mourning become tellable and shareable as narratives and (2) how these narrative practices are intertwined with features of social mediatization, such as reflexive, affect, and participation digital cultures. Engagements with death, dying and mourning on social media mourning are analysed as narrative - and more specifically - as small story practices. They are examined in relation to practices of affective positioning, which index the way sharers relate to the dead, to networked audiences, their self as well as to broader discourses about life and death. This approach is illustrated in a sample analysis and brings to the fore typical uses of blends of vernacular and formal language styles, intimate and distant affective positionings, personal and political performances that indicate both continuities and shifts in sociocultural engagements with death, dying and mourning in a digital era.

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