How and why do we write about mourning? How does narrative assist us when we dwell on, in, and with grief? What forms of community and even consolation do mournful texts offer? In this broad-ranging volume, twelve contributors grapple with these questions from a variety of disciplinary perspectives: Comparative Literature, Modern Languages, English, Music, Politics, and Biology. Chapters reflect upon different forms and expressions of grief across a very broad expanse of time, from the earliest evidence of human burial to contemporary grief memoirs, environmental mourning, and the coronavirus pandemic. In between, particular attention is paid both to medieval poetic traditions of mourning and to the responses of later readers to such texts. Four creative critical contributions are interspersed throughout the volume as witnesses to the imbrication of life and art in grief.

Simona Corso is Associate Professor of English Literature at the University of Roma Tre; Florian Mussgnug is Professor of Comparative Literature and Italian Studies at University College London; Jennifer Rushworth is Associate Professor of French and Comparative Literature at University College London.