Abstract
This chapter offers a sensemaking of my experience of doing activities radically differently in the context of COVID-19 grieving. My sensemaking process was guided by exercises from the “Massive & Micro Autoethnography: Creative responses to COVID-19” prompts, in which I was asked to write a vignette of an activity done radically differently and address why that activity matters. This exercise triggered ambivalent feelings, as if I had experiences that felt both right and wrong at the same time. Thinking through Judith Butler’s work on grievable lives, this autoethnography is a space to make visible the boundary of what I perceived to be radically different; it is deeply cultural and personal, encompassing a search for a community to which to belong, and the making of hierarchies between lives that are grievable and those not “like us.” The prompts turn my reflection to a space for going beyond the boundaries of cultural and political practices of grieving.
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Notes
- 1.
This picture is taken by my personal mobile.
- 2.
Traditional houses in the Guilan region in northern Iran are built with wood and have roofed terraces that wrap around the four sides of the house. The terrace is used mostly in the spring and summer, as during these times the region is quite hot and humid. The houses have often couple rooms at their center as well.
- 3.
Author’s translation. The original wording is: Derfor er det nå helt avgjørende at alle landets innbyggere deltar i en dugnad for å bremse smitten … Vi mobiliserer til dugnad og samarbeid i små og store lokalsamfunn (Regjeringen, 2020a, March 12).
- 4.
Author’s translation. The original wording is: Generasjonene før oss har skapt et samfunn hvor vi har tillit til, og respekt for, hverandre … Sammen har vi alle bidratt til å bygge velferdssamfunnet … Når terror og ulykker har truffet oss har vi kommet oss gjennom det i fellesskap… Uten den høye tilliten mellom innbyggere og myndighetene, kunne vi aldri fått hele Norge med på dugnaden for å bekjempe koronaviruset … Og husk at dette er ikke tiden for “jeg”. Dette er tiden for “vi” (Regjeringen, 2020b, March 18).
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Regjeringen. (2020a, March 12). Koronasituasjonen: Pressekonferanse om nye tiltak for å bekjempe koronaviruset [Corona condition: Press conference about the new measure fighting the coronavirus]. Retrieved August 30, 2020a from https://www.regjeringen.no/no/aktuelt/pressekonferanse-om-nye-tiltak-for-a-bekjempe-koronaviruset/id2693286/
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Seddighi, G. (2022). Why a Radically Different Act Feels Right: A Reimaging of Life During Lockdown in Rural Norway. In: Harris, D.X., Luka, M.E., Markham, A.N. (eds) Massive/Micro Autoethnography. Studies in Arts-Based Educational Research, vol 4. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-8305-3_8
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