The sadness of lives and the comfort of things: Goods as evocative objects in bereavement

Abstract

This paper seeks to understand the texture and emotional tenor of the relations that bereaved people can have with a range of objects, including those that seem mundane or simply part of the flotsam and jetsam of everyday life. Taking Joan Didion's best-selling book, The Year of Magical Thinking, as its focus, the paper examines the varied and significant roles that certain objects played as she negotiated the vagaries of her first year as a widow. While previous literature has mined the memorialising function of goods for survivors, our analysis suggests that goods and consumption experiences can also play a powerful role as tools to think with for those struggling to create a meaningful narrative of death and loss. It concludes by considering the contribution of the analysis to the understanding of goods as ‘active life presences’ (Turkle, 2007), the relationship between consumption and bereavement, and ‘the sadness of lives and the comfort of things’ (Miller, 2008).

Keywords:

• consumption symbolism
• grief
• bereavement
• continuing bonds
• textual analysis
• material culture

Acknowledgements

We are grateful for constructive and insightful comments on this work from editors, reviewers, and participants at the European Association for Consumer Research (2010) and the Social Context of Death, Dying and Disposal (2009) conferences. We are also grateful to John Desmond whose recommendation of The Comfort of Things was invaluable as this paper developed.

Notes

¹ We thank Tony Walter for this observation.