Death ends a life, not a relationship: Objects as media on children's graves

TY - CHAP

T1 - Death ends a life, not a relationship

T2 - Objects as media on children's graves

AU - Christensen, Dorthe Refslund

AU - Sandvik, Kjetil

PY - 2014/1/1

Y1 - 2014/1/1

N2 - In the final chapter, “Death Ends a Life, not a Relationship: objects as media on children’s graves”, Dorthe Refslund Christensen and Kjetil Sandvik investigate the relational affordances offered by objects as media in practices of death and commemoration on children’s graves. The authors argue that when it comes to bereavement practices as they materialize on children’s graves, it is the accommodation and decoration of the grave itself that function as media with their variety of physical objects as ritual and relational tools for communication. The bereaved perform practices on children’s graves – mirrored in online memorial sites – that transform the dead child into a being with whom an altered relationship may be built, maintained and developed so that the bereaved can, eventually, integrate the dead into his or her ongoing life.

AB - In the final chapter, “Death Ends a Life, not a Relationship: objects as media on children’s graves”, Dorthe Refslund Christensen and Kjetil Sandvik investigate the relational affordances offered by objects as media in practices of death and commemoration on children’s graves. The authors argue that when it comes to bereavement practices as they materialize on children’s graves, it is the accommodation and decoration of the grave itself that function as media with their variety of physical objects as ritual and relational tools for communication. The bereaved perform practices on children’s graves – mirrored in online memorial sites – that transform the dead child into a being with whom an altered relationship may be built, maintained and developed so that the bereaved can, eventually, integrate the dead into his or her ongoing life.

M3 - Book chapter

SN - 9781472413031

T3 - Studies in death, materiality and the origin of time

SP - 251

EP - 271

BT - Mediating and Remediating Death

A2 - Christensen, Dorthe Refslund

A2 - Sandvik, Kjetil

PB - Ashgate

CY - Farnham

ER -