The Consolation of Everyday Things
Abstract
This article begins by outlining some of the ways in which
objects have been understood to have consolatory functions in
Western culture. It then explores how a recent shift in thinking
about things is emerging both within academic discourse and
in popular works of creative none-fiction such as Joan Didion’s
The Year of Magical Thinking and Edmund de Waala’s The Hare
with the Amber Eyes. This new materialist thinking offers the
potential to challenge accepted understandings of the consolation
to be found in human/thing relations. This potential is
explored with particular reference to Etty Hillesum’s war-time
journals which place the consolation of things in a challenging
and creative theological frame.
Publisher
LIR. journal
Collections
View/ Open
Date
2015Author
Walton, Heather
Keywords
Transitional objects
new materialisms
grief work
Winnicott
Daniel Miller
Jane Bennett
Hillesum
Publication type
article, peer reviewed scientific
Language
eng