Overview
Showcases the grief experiences of prominent academics from the death studies field
Takes a narrative, auto-ethnographic approach to the subject
Challenges certain myths about deaths that are seen as ‘timely' and therefore supposedly easier to bear
Movingly illustrated in a manner which is highly readable, profoundly evocative and, as such, both comforting and sobering
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Table of contents (9 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
About this book
This collection shows what happens when facing the inevitable and sometimes expected death of a parent, and how such an ordinary part of life as parental death might connect with the children left behind. In many ways, individual deaths are extraordinary and leave a unique legacy – a kind of haunting.
The authors' accounts seek to make sense of death through witnessing its enactment and recording its detail. All the authors are experienced researchers in the field of death studies, and their collective expertise encompasses ethnography, psychology, sociology and anthropology. The individual descriptions of death and grief capture the everyday practicalities of managing death and dying, including, for example, the difficulties of caring responsibilities and the realities of dealing with strained family relationships. These accounts show the raw detail of death; they are deeply personal observations framed within critical theories.
As established scholars and practitioners that have researched and worked in end-of-life and bereavement care, the authors in this anthology offer a unique perspective on how identity is shaped by a close bereavement. The book employs a strong editorial narrative that blends memoir with theoretical engagement, and will be of interest to death studies scholars, as well as practitioners involved in end-of-life care and bereavement care and anyone who has experienced the death of a parent.
Reviews
Editors and Affiliations
About the editors
Caroline Pearce is a Visiting Researcher at the Palliative and End of Life Care Group, University of Cambridge, UK.
Carol Komaromy is a medical sociologist who has worked extensively in both NHS clinical practice and academia. She served as co-editor of the journal Mortality and was a founding member of the Association of Death and Society. Carol has retired from full-time work but is an honorary associate of The Open University, UK.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Narratives of Parental Death, Dying and Bereavement
Book Subtitle: A Kind of Haunting
Editors: Caroline Pearce, Carol Komaromy
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-70894-8
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: Social Sciences, Social Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-70893-1Published: 26 May 2021
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-70894-8Published: 25 May 2021
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XV, 199
Topics: Sociology of Family, Youth and Aging, Sociology of Culture, Psychotherapy and Counseling, Social Care