Meekings, Sam and Schad, John (2016) A mist that rises from the sea. PhD thesis, Lancaster University.
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Abstract
In my research through practice I am writing a creative memoir about memory and loss. It focuses on the life and death of my brother, and is set over a single month after his funeral. Each of the twenty-four chapters, mirroring the 24 years of my brother’s life, explore a particular theme that sheds light on our relationship. I draw on my own childhood as well as local myths, texts, stories, history, beliefs and traditions to show how identity and experience are complicated by context and surroundings. My aim is to use both the form and content of the work to create a working demonstration of the theory that the past is never lost, that it does not disappear and that, whatever we might forget, something always remains. I am focusing upon the following research questions: How can the process and perspective of the grieving mind, suspended between past and future, be represented in a narrative? How much is a person’s identity contained within the history of the places they lived in and the objects they treasured? How can biography be brought to life using the tools and techniques characteristic of literary fiction? What responsibilities do we have in bringing the dead back to life in writing? My original contribution to knowledge is to create new insights on how we come to measure or understand a life, as well as to explore the process of how the grieving mind comes to terms with the death of someone close. In addition to my creative project, I have created an annotated index that explores the theory and practice behind the creation of a personal history within a literary text.