Boekaankondiging
Hoofdredactie
De Quest for wisdom foundation deelt graag berichten uit de internationale (sociale) media en schenkt aandacht aan publicaties die bijdragen aan de ontwikkeling van interculturele levenskunst. Over de helende werking van poëzie, expressief schrijven en hoe daarin de zielsverwantschap tussen mensen tot uitdrukking kan komen.
Op 14 oktober 2020 is er een radio uitzending om 17 uur over “Writing the Self in Bereavement” bij het programma Career Buzz in Toronto dat ook in Nederland te horen is.
Het is een interview met Reinekke door radio presentator Mark Franklin, waarin zij vertelt over haar boek en het schrijfproces. Het schrijven ondersteunde haar in de tijd voor en na het overlijden van Frans. Ook onderzoekt zij erin hoe ‘writing the self’ en ‘career writing’ zich tot elkaar verhouden.
A Story of Love, Spousal Loss and Resilience
Reinekke Lengelle, w: writingtheself.ca
Series: Writing Lives: Ethnographic Narratives
“Reinekke Lengelle tells the story of her work and life partner, Frans Meijers, who develops a rare cancer and dies within seven months of his diagnosis. She speaks about how they openly faced his illness, how he made end of life choices, and how the poems she wrote became a means to stay close to Frans, and live well without him. In the final chapters, Reinekke makes an analysis of why writing this journey was important, what key lessons she felt that the bereavement process had to offer, how the writing-towards-transformation model she developed with Frans explains the process she goes through as she tells the story, and what other compelling research might follow.
“As human beings, we seek a life story we can make sense of, and that can make sense of us. In this autoethnography of loss, as lucid as it is captivating, Reinekke Lengelle not only reveals but also reflects candidly on her grief over her partner’s death, and her reconstruction of their relationship in its wake. More than a mirror of her bereaved soul, her writing is also a magnifying lens that artfully brings into sharper definition the human drama of love and loss, and the power of poetry and prose to foster its transformation.”
Robert A. Neimeyer, PhD, Editor of Death Studies and Techniques of Grief Therapy
20% Discount Available – enter the code SOC20 at checkout*
- Hb: 978-0-367-64333-1 | £96.00
- Pb: 978-0-367-64334-8 | £31.99
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For more information visit: www.routledge.com/9780367643348
Writing the Self in Bereavement
A Story of Love, Spousal Loss and Resilience
By Reinekke Lengelle, (2021)
In Writing the Self in Bereavement: A Story of Love, Spousal Loss and Resilience, Reinekke Lengelle uses her abilities as a researcher, poet, and professor of therapeutic writing to tell a heartfelt and fearless story about her grief after the death of her spouse and the year and a half following his diagnosis, illness, and passing.
This book powerfully demonstrates that writing can be a companion in bereavement. It uses and explains the latest research on coming to terms with spousal loss without being prescriptive. Integrated with this contemporary research are stories, poetry, and reflections on writing as a therapeutic process. The author unflinchingly explores a number of themes that are underrepresented in existing resources: how one deals with anger associated with loss, what a healthy response might be to unfinished business with the deceased, continuing conversations with the beloved (even for agnostics and atheists), ongoing sexual desire, and secondary losses.
As a rare book where an author successfully combines a personal story, heart-rending poetry, up-to-date research on grief, and an evocative exploration of taboo topics in the context of widowhood, Writing the Self in Bereavement is uniquely valuable for those grieving a spouse or other loved one, those supporting others in bereavement, and those interested in the healing power of poetry and life writing. Researchers on death and dying, grief counsellors, and autoethnographers will also benefit from reading this resonant resource on love and loss.
