Brennan, Michael (2003) Mourning identities : Hillsborough, Diana and the production of meaning. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

‘Mourning Identities: Hillsborough, Diana and the Production of Meaning’ explores
the meaning-making processes which contributed to the widespread public mourning
that followed the Hillsborough stadium disaster of 1989 and the death of Princess
Diana in 1997. It does so by the textual analysis of a sample of the public condolence
books signed following these events and by drawing upon autobiographical stories
related to each of them produced using the method known as ‘memory work’.
Drawing upon a variety of theoretical frameworks, including psychoanalytic, poststructuralist
and Bakhtinian influenced dialogics, it suggests that a range of social
identities were ‘hailed’ and discursively mobilised in the public mourning events that
followed the Hillsborough disaster and the death of Princess Diana. It further suggests
that identification is an indispensable and precursory aspect of public mourning,
which is summoned and given shape by epistolary and narrative practices of the self.
Public mourning of the sort considered here is theorised along two principal lines: the
iconic and the totemic. The former, it is argued, can be seen to relate to the largely
feminine global structures of feeling through which the public mourning for Princess
Diana were articulated, whilst the latter can be seen to relate to the largely masculine
local structures of feeling through which the public mourning following the
Hillsborough disaster were configured. In turn, it suggests that aspects of resistance to
the public mourning following each of the events considered as case studies here can
in themselves be considered as aspects of mourning, albeit for something other than
the obvious referents of loss during these events. It further points to the situated social
identity of the researcher as both instrumental not only to the motivation for, but to
the outcomes of social research.

Item Type:	Thesis or Dissertation (PhD)
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GT Manners and customs H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Grief, Mourning customs, Hillsborough Stadium Disaster, Sheffield, England, 1989, Diana, Princess of Wales, 1961-1997 -- Death and burial
Official Date:	September 2003
Dates:	Date Event September 2003 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Sociology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Steinberg, Deborah Lynn
Sponsors:	Economic and Social Research Council (Great Britain) (ESRC)
Extent:	2 v. (513 p.)
Language:	eng

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