The Terrain of Grief: A Consideration with Ontological Possibilities

Abstract

Grief is an affective state that is currently abjected within Canada and other countries such as the United States. By looking at the historical changes occurring from the eighteenth century through today, it becomes apparent how concrete mourning practices have changed significantly in relation to material processes such as the development of neoliberalism. These shifts have likewise been accompanied with a shift in the way that grief, as an affect, is moralized and contained. While this suggests a uniformity to such a history, factors such as race and gender have also played an important role in creating conditions of precarity. I specifically consider morbidity and mortality within Indigenous communities under settler colonialism and the potential impacts of these factors on how grief is experienced and expressed. Finally, I argue that grief is an affect which reveals an ontology that could potentially have social justice implications particularly when intertwined with the concept of “haunting.” Living beings are never fully separated into individuated bodies, rather beings are interconstituted at even the most intimate levels.