The phenomenology of violent loss: trauma, grief, and remembrance in the aftermath of terrorism in France (2015-2016)

Dimcheva, Yordanka Vasileva ORCID: 0000-0001-5650-5540 (2025). The phenomenology of violent loss: trauma, grief, and remembrance in the aftermath of terrorism in France (2015-2016). University of Birmingham. Ph.D.

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Abstract

Within a period of less than nine months between November 2015 and July 2016, France has twice been the target of mass terrorist attacks, claimed by ISIS, which caused the death of 130 people in Paris and 86 in Nice, sent shockwaves throughout French society, and plunged the country into successive states of emergency. Through the interpretive phenomenological analysis of the lived experiences of seven bereaved parents who lost a child in the 13 November 2015 Paris attacks and the Bastille Day vehicle-ramming attack in Nice in 2016, this thesis explores the complexity of violent loss to terrorism. Guided by the fundamental lifeworld themes in phenomenology – lived time, space, body, and human relations – the thesis traces the intricate ways trauma, grief, and remembrance intersect in the parents' narratives of loss and the enduring impact of the experience upon their experiential landscape.
While acknowledging the diversity of loss experiences, it considers how the trauma of violent loss permeates all dimensions of the parents' lifeworlds and disrupts their sense of identity and ways of being in the world, leaving them grasping for meaning. In view of the political circumstances of their bereavement, the thesis argues that the experience of violent loss to terrorism should not be viewed solely as a 'loss', thus disregarding the post-traumatic sequelae that eventuate when death involves institutional failures and the victims' anticipation of justice. Along with its insights into the workings of trauma and grief, the thesis also sheds light on the meaning-making commitments and affective practices of remembrance through which the bereaved seek to preserve the relational bonds with the deceased and re-commit to life and the world as to re-learn them.
Drawing on first-person accounts and sensory ethnographic observations at the sites of the attacks and during the judicial trials of the accused, the thesis emphasises the value of exploring the experiential dimension of extreme situations and how individuals attempt to make meaning out of them. It also highlights the importance of accounting for the researcher‘s positionality and self-reflexivity throughout the entire research process, thereby contributing to methodological and ethical debates on the implications of using qualitative methods when researching emotionally-laden topics.

Type of Work:

Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.)

Award Type:

Doctorates > Ph.D.

Supervisor(s):