Mourning: ethical practice and conceptual tool for social and political relations

This article draws upon discourse theoretical and psychoanalytical approaches to provide an overview on the potentiality of mourning as both a practice and a conceptual tool for the critical analysis of social and political phenomena. Within poststructuralist discourse theory, mourning has recently been considered a practice with the potential to engage in ‘ideological critique’. In contrast, stunted mourning and melancholia have been associated with being under the ‘grip of ideology’, affected by hegemonic discursive narratives and practices. By providing examples ranging from national identity to unemployment and class resubjectivation, the argument is made that mourning is a useful practice and analytical tool for examining phenomena that result from the experience of dislocation, even when it is not death related.