Consolationscapes in the Face of Loss: Grief and Consolation in Space and Time (Routledge Studies in Human Geography)

Human beings are grieving animals. ‘Consolation’, or an attempt to assuage grief, is an age-old response to loss which has various expressions in different cultural contexts. Over the past century, consolation has dropped off the West’s cultural radar. The contributions to this volume highlight this neglect of consolation in popular and academic discourses and explore the usefulness of the concept of consolation for analysing spatio-temporal constellations. __Consolationscapes in the Face of Loss__ brings together scholars from geography, philosophy, history, anthropology and religious studies. The chapters use spatial and conceptual mappings of grief and consolation to analyse a range of spaces and phenomena around grief, bereavement and remembrance, comfort and resilience, including battlefield memorials, crematoria, graveyards and natural burial sites in Europe. Authors shift the discussion beyond the Global North by including responses to traumatic grief in post-conflict African societies, as well as Australian Aboriginal traditions of ritual consolation. The book focuses on the relationship between space/place and consolation. In so doing, it offers a new lens for research on death, grief and bereavement. It offers new insights for students and researchers interrogating contemporary bereavement, as well as those interested in meaning-making, emerging socio-cultural practices and their role in personal and collective resilience. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents List of illustrations Notes on contributors Foreword Preface Introduction: From deathscapes to consolationscapes: spaces, practices and experiences of consolation Bringing a spatial lens to consolation Interdisciplinary approaches to consolation The chapters References PART I: Reviving consolation 1. What is consolation? Towards a new conceptual framework Introduction Three notable models of consolation Three strands of consolation The Four-Axis Model of Consolation Application Conclusion References 2. Bittersweet: Mapping grief and consolation through the lens of deceased organ donation Introduction Mapping grief and consolation: a conceptual framework The bittersweet consolation of organ donation: #livesoninothers The Organ Donation Isle of Man Memorial Garden Conclusion: Reflections on mapping grief and consolation References PART II: European constellations 3. Consolation and the ‘poetics’ of the soil in ‘natural burial’ sites Introduction Environmental concerns A call ‘back to nature’ The biotic non-self Scoping, coping and consolation Summary and tentative conclusion References 4. The crematorium as a ritual and musical consolationscape Introduction Music and the cremation ritual Interference of places: Building, ritual and music Music and consolation Crematorium, music and consolation Consolationscape References 5. Emotional landscapes: Battlefield memorials to seventeenthcentury Civil War conflicts in England and Scotland Introduction Emotional communities Naseby (1645) Wigtown (1685) Emotional geographies The Naseby monuments Wigtown monuments Conclusion References 6. Danish churchyards as consolationscapes Introduction The seemingly secularised look of Danish churchyards The reformation of material culture The displacement of consolation Regulating consolation in Lutheran Denmark Cremation and Protestant heritage The new-old deathscape and the strengthened church Contesting Protestant norms of consolation Official religion versus lived religion Planning for future consolation References PART III: Beyond the Global North 7. Moving through the land: Consolation and space in Tiwi Aboriginal death rituals Introduction Connections to country When the turtles vanished Ritual cleansing of the dead’s territory Postfuneral rites from Pirlangimpi to Karumurarimili Conclusion References 8. Rituals, healing and consolation in post-conflict environments: The case of the Matabeleland Massacre in Zimbabwe Introduction Death wounds The case of Gukurahundi The practice of Ndebele traditional funeral rites Gukurahundi and the desecration of religio-cultural values Conclusion References 9. Love the dead, fear the dead: Creating consolationscapes in postwar northern Uganda Introduction Acholi consolationscapes The LRA war and the displaced dead Twenty years of war Going home: Post-war reburials Reburying Opio and Ocen Communal consolation The threat of the bush Managing the uncanny Creating consolationscapes through reburial Creating the future The comfort and discomfort of continuing bonds The dark sides of Acholi consolationscapes? Conclusion References 10. ‘It’s God’s will’: Consolation and religious meaning-making after a family death in urban Senegal Introduction Conceptual framing: Consolation and religious solace Narratives of the death and religious meaning-making Co-presence and ‘getting by’ Continuing bonds and practices of remembrance Conclusion References Conclusion: Analysing consolationscapes References Index "Human beings are grieving animals and consolation, an attempt to assuage grief, is an age-old response to loss, expressed variously in different cultural contexts. However, over the course of the past century, consolation has dropped off the West's cultural radar. The contributions to this volume highlight this neglect of consolation in popular and academic discourses and explore the analytical value of the concept of consolation for analysing spatio-temporal constellations. The volume brings together scholars from geography, philosophy, history, anthropology and religious studies. The chapters use spatial and conceptual mappings of grief and consolation to analyse a range of spaces and phenomena around grief, bereavement and remembrance, comfort and resilience, including battlefield memorials, crematoria, graveyards, natural burial sites in Europe, and they shift the boundaries of discussion beyond the Global North by including responses to traumatic grief in post-conflict African societies as well as Australian Aboriginal traditions of ritual consolation. Consolationscapes focuses on the relationship between space/place and consolation. In so doing, the book offers a new lens for research on death, grief and bereavement. It opens new insights for students and researchers interrogating contemporary bereavement, as well as those interested in emerging social-cultural practices, meaning-making and their role in personal and collective resilience"-- Provided by publisher