Future Directions for Continuing Bonds Research

Out of the blue and into it: Autoethnography, emotions and complicated grief

“…However, she became increasingly troubled as the practical and psychological difficulties of mining trauma interfered with this exploratory process. Perhaps she was performing a 're-membering' ritual (Paxton, 2018): continuing her relationship with her grandmother beyond her death, telling stories with friends and family and re-imagining her grandmother's lived moments. The tension between the professional purpose of the autoethnography and the painful familial and social focus of the research meant that feeling rules and norms engulfed the memory of her grandmother, causing autoethnographic fatigue.…”

“…When this happens in social situations, whether encounters with strangers in public spaces (Goffman, 1961) or intimate meetings with close relational others, it often evokes pressurising audience reactions. Those around the bereaved expect and encourage them to return to normality (Sawicka, 2016) as if grief is something to be resolved with haste (Paxton, 2018).…”

“…Denzin, 2009). Autoethnographic data analysis may lead to epiphanic breakthroughs of meaning-making, insight and awakening (DeGloma, 2014) resulting from meticulous self-examination or mourning the deceased (Paxton, 2016, 2018). For example, it has been argued that embodied writing can assist in recovery from domestic violence (Metts, 2016) while mindfulness and meditation techniques may be helpful to survivors of rape (Van de Voorde, 2020).…”

“…The storytelling format (Ellis, 1998) promises social rewards of reception, acceptance and validation as it ' affords us the chance to connect with our readers in ways that may make them care ’ (Doty, 2010: 1050). For example, Townsend and Gay (2021) used autoethnography to highlight the precarious employment situation of adjunct professors to colleagues within the academy, and Paxton (2018) used the method to suggest alternative ways of remembering the deceased that could challenge the death taboo. However, this communicative purpose depends upon authors creating a shared set of meanings by drawing upon interpretive repertoires (Wetherell, 1998) and vocabularies of motive (Mills, 1940).…”

“…This informed the design of the study, as an exploration of the interactional processes through which emotional narratives about grief unfold in interaction. It also defined Georgie's insider position, as a griever navigating conflicts between feelings and social experiences (Paxton, 2018). Autoethnography therefore seemed like an appropriate choice of method.…”