At stille sig åbent an: sorg som livs- og identitetspraksis

Abstract

I this article, I write autoetnography on my own grief practices as ethnographic material in order to analyse what grief is – or can be, how in particular is grief lived and performed rooted in everyday life and the liminal of and by the bereaved. What does it mean to grieve? How can it be done? I reflect on how specific ritualized grief practices are constructed, what are their elements? how do they communicate with the sociocultural world around them?
I problematize the normativity about grief performed both in academic research and publicly and argue that we need rolemodels and that grief might not mostly be about our relationship to the dead but the bereaved’s relation to him- or herself. Loss is an opportunity to welcome vulnerability into your life.