Consolationscapes in the Face of Loss

Human beings are grieving animals. âConsolationâ 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 Westâs 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. . Language: English