The narrative expression of grief
- Submitting institution
-
University of Sunderland
- Unit of assessment
- 27 - English Language and Literature
- Output identifier
- 1270
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
-
-
- Location
- -
- Brief description of type
- Creative writing collection
- Open access status
- Out of scope for open access requirements
- Month
- -
- Year
- 2018
- URL
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http://sure.sunderland.ac.uk/id/eprint/12465/
- Supplementary information
-
-
- Request cross-referral to
- -
- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
- -
- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
-
-
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- The short stories that form this output explore the narrative expression of grief in a variety of formats, from flash fiction to longer prose, extending Dobbs’ research profile as a prose writer.
In the work, Dobbs utilises experimental and surrealist techniques in order to find methods that investigate how thought processes are affected during the grieving process. The output also demonstrates narrative that plays with the temporality of dramatic structure in order to subvert reader expectations.
Reviewers have described one of the pieces in the collection, Burning the Ants, as reading like ‘small novels’ that are ‘slow to give up their secrets’ (Sabotage Reviews). This demonstrates a continued development in prose writing and Jude Gerald Lopez, in his blog on image and words, calls it a ‘narrative that pans out like a motion picture’.
The knowledge gained from this practice expands Dobbs’ knowledge of prose but also clearly connects to her performance framework as an aerialist. She was commissioned by Sunderland Culture to deliver ‘Time’, which was a joint photography exhibition and performance centred on grief. The photography demonstrated a narrative timeline of the impact of grief on the body. This has led to being asked to deliver prose and performance workshops by Northern Writers Studio, as well as feeding back into her academic exploration, writing a journal article for Circus is Not the Only Fruit (forthcoming from Contra Project) about the narrative influence within her aerial work. Dobbs was offered a residency at Dance City in December 2020 to more fully explore my narrative aerial practice.
Both titles containing ‘As Linda Was Buying the Tulips’ and ‘Burning the Ants’ were nominated and shortlisted for a Saboteur Award respectively. Flash Journal Chester, featuring ‘The Robin’ is one of the top 10 literary journals for flash fiction.
- Author contribution statement
- -
- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
- -