Constructing the dead: Retrospective sensemaking in eulogies
Eulogies serve a sensemaking function of identity construction—both for the deceased and for the survivors. This work examines the communicative construction of identity in eulogies and shows how eulogia discourse affirms and reconstructs our relational identity through communication.
The article extends scholarship on eulogies by using relational communication theories to investigate how eulogic discourse functions as identity construction, considering eulogies of ordinary people, and exploring the gendered nature of eulogies. We discuss how eulogies are specific ritualized
forms of communication in which the bereaved focus on self-identity as they articulate their experience of grief.
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: Department of Communication Studies, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA
Publication date: 27 May 2016
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