Introduction
Navigating loss can be as the Psalmist described: a dark and shadowed valley (Psa. 23). Grief can feel as fear (Lewis, 1961). Sometimes persons need a guide for such a potentially frightening journey. For me, that person was my maternal grandma.
Research Proposal
The purpose of this paper is to propose my research design, which includes my research questions, hypothesis, literature review, research approach, and procedure. I also discuss research assets, areas for growth, and explain ethical implications. I explore the ways that autoethnographic and performance narrative illumine fear of death in end-of-life care-giving contexts through the lens of my experience with my maternal grandma, with whom I communicated in her end of life care-giving contexts on a part time basis from 2001-2010.
This research asks, "In what ways did I experience fear of death while caring for a relative in end-of-life?" and "In what ways did I resolve my death fears while caring for a relative in end-of-life?" For future research, I hypothesize that autoethnographic and performance narrative helps persons to better understand and potentially resolve their death fears while caring for a relative in end-of-life.
I selected and organized references based on their scholarly contribution to this study's concepts: autoethnographic narrative, fear of death, and end-of-life care-giving contexts, which in my case occurred in relational and environmental spaces: co-generational communication, in private residences, at a hospital, and at a rehabilitation center. In the literature review, I referenced descriptive works, and detailed empiric works that explore fear of death as managing terror. From there, I identify a gap in end-of-life research, and propose that my research can fill this gap. Namely, death terror and end of life research must take place in actual end-of-life contexts, and not a lab, necessitating extensive fieldwork and a qualitative approach.
Click the title below for full article [PDF]:
~ powered by doc2pdf.net and docstoc.com ~
~ powered by doc2pdf.net and docstoc.com ~
Thank you for reading,
Dena
