Honors Humanities 12

Context: Didion and Grief

As we move into deeper conversations about the relationship between identity and narrative, it's helpful to make sure we have some understanding of the context in which The Year of Magical Thinking was written. Each section of this page will give you a little bit more context to help us situate our conversation.

Who is Joan Didion?

There is a documentary currently available on Netflix called The Center Will Not Hold. Didion's nephew, Griffin Dunne, produced it in 2017. I would encourage you to watch the particular portion where the documentary addresses her husband's passing, shortly followed by her writing this book and her daughter's passing, which runs from 1:13:41-1:19:52. Synchronous friends, we'll watch this in class. Asynchronous friends, if you need help getting access to Netflix, let me know.

How do we understand grief? The neuroscientific approach

Supplemental Materials on Grief

Collection of paintings dealing with grief in the wake of death

Summary of a Harvard study on processing trauma through writing

Albums to consider: