“Let’s Face It, We’re Undone by Each Other”: A Politics of Grief After Butler

Abstract

This project is a formal attempt to illustrate a “politics of grief” – an ethical demand that emerges in loss. It is a series of essays, obituaries, and eulogies inspired by and indebted to Judith Butler's seminal essay “Violence, Mourning, Politics” (2003). Through theoretical reflections and critical engagements with various types of grief and loss, the project attempts to engage a praxis of mourning. The paper is written to be typeset like a page of Talmud, the central text of Rabbinic Judaism. This layout provokes a conversation across time and space, weaving the commentary of different authors with different perspectives around a central text. Writing in this form is an attempt to actualize certain claims: all writing is a collective process; all thinking is done in relation; my written words are a palimpsest of all I’ve read and learned. In this way the form serves the function, illustrating the importance of community and relationality in a politics of grief. Ultimately, I posit that using the obituary and eulogy as tools of mourning can support relational healing and furnish a sense of interdependence while tending individual wounds. This file contains only an excerpt of the project, including the Table of Contents, Introduction and Bibliography. Please email rachelflorman@hds.harvard.edu if you would like to read more.