ABSTRACT

In the Western social imaginary, death cuts people apart from their loved ones on the embodied level while the connection may persist on the emotional level. In bereavement studies, this has been theorized as continuing bonds. In this article, I explore these bonds by focusing on their affective and intimate nature. I examine the topic through 10 in-depth interviews conducted with LGBTQ¹ people who have lost partners and ex-partners to death. Following feminist and queer theories of affect and intimacy, I ask how post-mortem forms of affective intimacy appeared in the interviewees’ stories, how they felt about it, and how it had affected their new romantic relationships. For many, affective intimacy was an important, yet sometimes involuntary, part of grieving and remembrance. It appeared as complex and enduring entanglements of both positive and negative affects with an ability to interfere with the interviewees’ relationships, challenging the boundaries of monogamy. Following the logics of queer death studies, this article rethinks bereavement studies by bringing affective intimacy into focus and deepening the analysis of LGBTQ people’s stories of partner loss.

摘要

在西方社会想象中，死亡在具身层面将人们与亲人分开，而这种联系可能会在情感层面持续存在。在丧亲之痛的研究中，这被理论化为持续的纽带。在本文中，我通过关注它们的情感和亲密性质来探索这些联系。我通过对 LGBTQ ¹进行的 10 次深入采访来研究这个话题失去伴侣和前伴侣死亡的人。遵循女性主义和酷儿的情感和亲密理论，我询问受访者的故事中如何出现情感亲密的事后形式，他们对此有何感受，以及它如何影响他们新的浪漫关系。对许多人来说，情感亲密是悲伤和回忆的重要组成部分，但有时是非自愿的。它似乎是积极和消极影响的复杂而持久的纠缠，有能力干扰受访者的关系，挑战一夫一妻制的界限。本文遵循酷儿死亡研究的逻辑，重新思考丧亲研究，将情感亲密作为焦点，并深化对 LGBTQ 人失去伴侣的故事的分析。