This article presents three twentieth-century philosophical concepts of the experience of mourning. The first, formulated by Sigmund Freud, revolutionized both humanistic discourse and social sciences through the normative concept of “work of mourning”. The second thinker, Roland Barthes, rejects this process and all social determinants, choosing instead a narcissistic self-loss. The third philosopher, Jacques Derrida, dialectically integrates both perspectives and turns toward the community, while simultaneously introducing the concept of infinite and impossible mourning. Finally, the conclusion demonstrates how all three concepts continue to influence the contemporary world–whether through commodification and integration into the cultural industry, or through the formation of affective communities around loss.
You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.
