Producing the deceased : The writing practices and emotional work of mourners on Facebook

Résumé 0

This article sheds light on the way an emotional work can be done on the occasion of the death of a user on Facebook, through the writing practices that take place on the profil pages of deceased persons and on the “group” pages created after death in a memorial sighting. Drawing on an analysis of the general conditions of use of this social networking site, the writing tools used, and the publications that take place on 44 profil pages pertaining to 42 deceased persons immediately after their death, it firstly aims at exploring the acts of instituting other possible lives for the deceased on Facebook. Based on an analysis of the writing practices that unfold on these pages after the death, seven interviews and a floating observation of the phenomenon, it secondly shows how the emotional communities are constituted around the “production of the deceased”, without however bieng free from conflictuality. By comparing these writing practices with those that take place on 34 “group” pages created to maintain the memory of one of these 42 deceased persons, it thirdly, reveals the way in which Facebook makes possible the production of the metonymic dead, representing all persons who died in similar circumstances, as well as the enlargement of the emotional communities of these people, and the consequences of this enlargement.