Give sorrow words? Writing the 21st century grief novel

Williamson, Claire 2025. Give sorrow words? Writing the 21st century grief novel. PhD Thesis, Cardiff University. Item availability restricted.

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Abstract

This thesis is in two parts: a novel titled The Scarab Bookshop, set in 1999 in Edinburgh (Scotland) and Trivandrum area (of Kerala, South India), and a critical commentary which explores five 21st century novels that contain themes of grieving (people, places, choices, cultures) through the lens of Arthur W. Frank’s narratives in response to ‘narrative wreckage’. These narratives are identified in Frank’s book, The Wounded Storyteller (2005), as Chaos, Restitution and Quest, which are recognised in this thesis as having direct relevance to grief narratives and these discussions offer a unique perspective to the field of grief representation in literature. Questions are raised at the outset, focussed on novel writing: 1) Is retelling chaos a quest for voice, recognition of the chaotic experience and a ‘re-quest’ for connection with a socially unrecognised or marginalised experience, where life is lived in overwhelming suffering? and 2) Are fictions versatile enough to hold a quest, incorporating elements of memoir, manifesto and automythology? Inquiries are also raised by Frank about aspects of fiction which may support grief narratives, such as: shape and direction, distance from the immediacy of events, containment of emotions, employment of personal agency and responsibility, words acting as a vehicle for witnessing the suffering of others, and whether fictions can help to understand the mystery of our bodies? Frank’s ideas are investigated alongside psychological and cultural theories of grief, such as Kübler Ross’s ‘Grief Cycle’ (1969), Stroebe and Schutt’s ‘Dual Process Model’, Valentine’s ‘Continuing Bonds’ (2008), Warden’s ‘Tasks of Mourning’ (2009), and Douglas Davies book Death, Ritual and Belief (2017, 3rd ed.) These theories, Frank’s questions, and counter arguments form the analysis of five literary novels: (Melvyn Bragg’s Remember Me, Nathan Filer’s The Shock of the Fall, Kiran Desai’s The Inheritance of Loss, Alice Sebold’s The Lovely Bones, and Max Porter’s Grief is the Thing with Feathers), which form the ground of the investigation. The thesis largely concludes that the novel form with its narrative drive (Quest), and the backdrop of an idealised world view of restoration (Restitution) can contain difficult to read narratives of pain and suffering (Chaos), and exemplifies the acute stress responses of ‘fight, flight, freeze, and fawn’ within the context of story. Set in 1999, the novel The Scarab Bookshop is narrated by three characters, and bookended by the voice of a character, who appears in all the individual linked stories within a chronological timeline. Each character has experienced their own grief, whether of people, places, choices or cultures, and often a combination. Their grief responses are depicted through the unfolding drama, and aspects of fight, flight, freeze, fawn and flow come to the fore, as well as the key elements of Frank’s Chaos, Restitution and Quest narratives. Sara is a recovering alcoholic struggling with sobriety, Lily is an adoptee, wrestling with identity, and Andy has suffered illness at a young age. All experience some geographical dislocation due to their losses, as does Krishna, who finds himself in Edinburgh, following his wife’s death in childbirth and his son’s misadventure in the Arabian sea. Aspects of the novel dialogue with the critical commentary, with overlapping themes and writing techniques. Together, the creative and the critical components of the thesis highlight the value and pitfalls of fiction as a medium for narrating responses to grief.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Date Type:	Completion
Status:	Unpublished
Schools:	Schools > English, Communication and Philosophy
Subjects:	P Language and Literature > PR English literature
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	7 May 2025
Last Modified:	12 May 2025 12:43
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/178108

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