CULTR ST 781 / Public Mourning in Canada: What Makes a Life Grievable?

3 unit(s)

(cross-listed as ENGLISH 781)

Beginning with a consideration of Judith Butler’s development of the concept of “grievability,” this course will explore the question of what makes a life widely grievable in the contemporary context of colonial Canada. Case studies will include public mourning in response to murdered or missing Indigenous women; the 1985 Air India bombing; police murders of Black men and the Black Lives Matter movement; and high-profile murders of queer and trans* or gender non- conforming subjects and responses such as Trans Day of Remembrance.