Routledge Evocative Autoethnographies of Loss, Grief and Death (Writing Lives: Ethnographic Narratives)

This international collection of evocative autoethnographic essays explores loss, grief, and death through the lived experiences of professionals and individuals intimately connected to end-of-life events. The book offers powerful and evocative reflections on how one's encounters with death and dying impact and frame how we approach and accommodate an understanding of loss and grief. The collection draws together critical autoethnographic narratives from several geographical regions and, significantly, communities of practice associated with loss, grief, and the end of life. Key themes include encountering loss, grief, and death through witnessing; the experience of the presence of absence felt as part of loss across diverse spheres (including public, digital, and imaginary spaces); autoethnography as therapy; the inheritance of the ‘memory of death’, through conversation. Each of the four sections in the volume is followed by a brief response by the editors to help the reader comprehend and contextualise the emotional processes of compiling the volume, alongside a sectional qualitative and quantitative content analysis of the chapters. This is a significant resource for anyone undertaking research, particularly those working in anthropology, critical event studies, death studies, psychology, clinical psychology, and sociology.