Katrin Den Elzen Katrin Den Elzen i(9045992 works by)
Gender: Female
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1 Ticking the Box Katrin Den Elzen , 2017 single work autobiography
— Appears in: The Authorised Theft Papers : Writing, Scholarship, Collaboration 2017;

'This creative piece, Ticking the Box, is a short memoir depicting my grief as a young widow and portraying aspects of the journey of recovery from that loss. The opening scene shows having to tick the box ‘widowed’ for the first time on an official form shortly after my husband’s death and then explores my response to the unwanted identity of ‘young widow’. This includes the first solo visit for dinner at the home of a befriended couple, conveying the awkwardness felt by all. A flashback takes the reader back to when my husband and I first met each other in Egypt, where we were both traveling as young backpackers. It depicts the first days spent together against the stunning backdrop of the temples in Luxor and concludes with the buying of an artefact, which now sits on my bedside table, a tangible connection to the past. The text explores how to integrate the memories of the past, of twenty years spent together, into the future in a way that offers the past as well as the future its own space. This work explores issues of identity, grief and premature loss. It recognises the dead as vulnerable subjects and strives for an ethical representation of the deceased.'

Source: Abstract.

1 [Review Essay] Navigating Loss in Women’s Contemporary Memoir Katrin Den Elzen , 2017 single work essay
— Appears in: Life Writing , vol. 14 no. 3 2017; (p. 409-412)

'The widely acknowledged memoir boom has thrown the limelight on this contested genre. While memoir has received significant critical attention in recent times, it is striking that the sub-genre of the grief memoir has seen little scholarly investigation until now. But then the grief memoir, in particular women’s grief memoirs, itself is a ‘relatively new literary form’, as Kathleen Fowler has argued (525).' (Introduction)

1 Rewriting the Bereaved Self : The Role of Narrative in Rebuilding the Self and Constructing Meaning Following the Loss of One’s Spouse Katrin Den Elzen , 2015 single work criticism
— Appears in: TEXT : Journal of Writing and Writing Courses , October vol. 19 no. 2 2015;

'Losing one’s spouse is one of the most difficult experiences we can face in life. It typically contests our sense of self, requiring the bereaved to rebuild the self. Narrative is well suited to facilitate identity reconstruction following grief. This paper posits that further research is needed into the specific narrative processes that facilitate recovery from grief in autobiographical writing. It intends to contribute to this gap in knowledge by linking bereavement theory with narrative theory in a textual analysis of the grief memoir To have and to hold (1997) by Walter Mikac, co-written by Lindsay Simpson.

'Through the close reading of To have and to hold and my own autobiographical writing this paper analyses the specific ways in which identity reconstruction takes place in the text, in particular narrative structure and metaphor. In accord with contemporary grief theory as espoused by Robert Neimeyer it argues for the importance of meaning making in the reconstruction of the self following bereavement, especially in the case of premature and sudden loss. In its analysis of Mikac’s meaning making in the text, it employs Neimeyer’s theory of meaning construction which posits that meaning can be found either in the life of the survivor or in the loss itself. Lastly, I draw observations about my personal experience as a postgraduate student writing a grief memoir and discuss how the symbiosis of being both author and academic researching bereavement has contributed to my own identity reconstruction. ' (Publication abstract)

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