Article published In:
Narrative InquiryVol. 24:2 (2014) ► pp.218–238
“The self-murderer from Orminge”
A bereaved daughter’s remonstrance to “rescue” her Self through a performed memoir of revolt
Moral discourses, which operate to create difference among people, construct and reconstruct a “suicide stigma” whereby the suicide-bereaved are stigmatized in their social contexts and thus prevented from communicating their experience of loss. Departing from a performance-based pragmatic approach, this article uses Bamberg’s (1997) positioning theory to analyze a young woman’s performed memoir as her way of resisting this stigmatizing position. Following her mother’s suicide, the daughter-narrator breaks the silence, renegotiates meaning and claims her normalcy — and that of people like her. The audience members, who partake in the emotional and relational aspects of her grief, are positioned as witnesses. They represent society and “the moral court of law”, and are endowed with the power to liberate the narrator from her guilt. This article showcases how the narrative format of a performative memoir can enable a process of de-stigmatization and in addition work to empower and help normalize the stigmatized experiences of others.
Keywords: identity, narrative, performance, adolescent, bereavement, stigma, suicide
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2017. ‘Suicide stigma’ renegotiated: Storytelling, social support and resistance in an Internet-based community for the young suicide-bereaved. Qualitative Social Work 16:6 ► pp. 775 ff.
Silvén Hagström, Anneli
2019. “Why did he choose to die?”: A meaning-searching approach to parental suicide bereavement in youth. Death Studies 43:2 ► pp. 113 ff.
Silvén Hagström, Anneli
2020. Research-Based Theater and “Stigmatized Trauma”: The Case of Suicide Bereavement. Frontiers in Psychology 11
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