Deconstructing death: Toward a poetic remystification and all that jazz

Abstract

Modernist citizens turn increasingly to social science and the popular press for answers about what once was the unfathomable nature of death and dying. Contemporary people have received an homogenized version of death and grief, replete with neatness, predictability and control, which in the end rob the grieving of meaning-making. Deconstruction of this death narrative occurs through the placement of two interrelated texts laid side by side; a personal narrative and a comedian's routine, both interrupted randomly by poems submitted by students, combine to shatter that narrative, thus creating multiple, personalized, meaningful narratives.

Keywords:

• Death
• Deconstruction
• Demythologisation
• Epigenetic
• Poetic
• Reflexivity