Grieving from afar : An exploration of women’s lived experiences of mourning close relatives at a distance

Sammanfattning

This study delves into the lived experiences of that which has been conceptualized as grieving from afar. Through the conduction of in-depth interviews with six women in Sweden with migratory backgrounds, this study explores the experiences of grieving close relatives who died in the women’s respective countries of origin. The twofold aim of this study is to examine the multifaceted and embodied experiences of grief and practices of remembrance, while also attending to how geographical distance both complicates and is navigated in the women’s lived experiences. In doing so, this study further aims to contribute to the existing literature on transnational bereavement. Taking as its point of departure a critical view of the mind/body dualism and life/death division common to Western cultural imaginaries, this study draws on feminist phenomenological theorization of the lived body and scholarship foregrounding understandings of grief as a fundamentally embodied process, beyond purely psychological frames of thought. The women’s narratives have illuminated various ways in which the loss of a close relative at a distance is experienced through lived tensions of belonging to multiple places simultaneously. It is argued that the women’s experiences of grieving from afar involve ongoing, embodied negotiations of the very sense of distance and proximity, and the presence and absence of the deceased. While geographical distance is shown to be interlinked with the possibilities of embodying grief in desired ways, the study also highlights how sensory traces, memories, and continued forms of relationality with the deceased are present in the women’s everyday lives in Sweden, despite their physical separation from the bodies and places they mourn.