importance of subject position and how subject-position was put into
context by the women in this study. Alerted by Foucault's
understanding of discourse I became increasingly interested in how the women constructed 'roles' for themselves in a narrative of grieving. The most salient narrative resources were the subject-positions that were adopted. I began to see that subject positions were also narrative characters and that there were storylines which served as context for these subject positions.
I was able to identify four key storylines present in each narrative .
• A death story in which the mother's death is depicted as either a 'good',
or 'chaotic death',
• A self-in-relationship story in which the women speak of the care that
existed between mother and daughter for each other.
• A politics of grief story which incorporates sadness over the life of the
• A striving for connection story m which the women seek
metaphysical/psychical connection with their mothers.
I then looked at the "discursive practices" and "discursive resources" that were drawn on by the women. These terms are defined by Potter &
Wetherell (1995), who describe discursive practices as "what people do
with their talk", and discursive resources as the "resources that people draw on in the course of those practices" (p .8 1). From examination of how the women use the narrative, and from attending to their descriptions of events, I was able to determine the subject positions that the women were drawing from (Althusser, 196811971; Davies & Harre, 1990). The term 'subject position' as used in this study derives from the belief that subjectivity is a linguistic construction. For example, in the following chapters the women will often be seen depicting themselves as morally caring, and as committed and responsible daughters.
Generating the outcome
The ongoing process of data analysis led to the identification of three distinct discourses: Continuity, Discontinuity and Silencing. Other
discourses may exist within the narratives, but these three constitute those relevant to the research problematic. It is the patterning of these discourses, their interconnections and tensions, and their essential components that give form to the metadiscourse of grief which is the research outcome.
In the discussions on the three discourses in subsequent chapters they are separated out for the purposes of presentation. However, within the understandings of each woman they co-exist and interrelate. E ach discourse is multidimensional, and has a number of identified characteristics. At different times and in different circumstances a particular discourse will have pre-eminence. In particular, continuity and discontinuity co-exist in tension with each other, with one having
pnmacy at any g�.ven time, and with silencing intersecting both discourses, but having a profound influence on discontinuity.
In summary, this study uses the processes of discourse analysis to examine the narratives of fifteen self-selected women. The outcome is the identification of three distinct discourses, namely continuity, discontinuity and silencing, which function m interrelationship to constitute the metadiscourse within which women construct their understandings and experience of grief. Analysis of the data revealed two different patterns within the metadiscourse primarily associated with the age of the daughter when her mother died. Each pattern has identifiable characteristics which are stated in general terms supported by examples selected from the data. However, each pattern is manifested differently when situated within the actual life circumstances of each woman.
In the next chapter the emergent metadiscourse of grief is discussed in more detail.
CHAPTER SIX
THE M E TADISCOURSE OF GRIEF: CON TIN U I TY, D ISCO N TIN U I TY AND SILENCING
This chapter, which begins the presentation of the research outcome, explores the metadiscourse of grief through discussion of the essential components of the three distinct discourses which emerged during the processes associated with discourse analysis: Continuity, Discontinuity
and Silencing. These reflect and embody the social processes and discursive imperatives around the experiences of the daughters bereaved of their mothers, who participated in this study. In later chapters I will discuss how these discourses were characteristically presented as the women utilised the structure of the narrative to present and develop their understandings of the death of their mothers.
At this point it is important to reiterate that the narratives which form the corpus of the text, and are scrutinised by the gaze of the researcher, are all situated within the circumstances prevailing within a particular society at a particular point in time. Despite the idiosyncrasies of personal circumstance, which become evident as individual narratives are subjected to the processes of discourse analysis, the interview transcripts yield structures and reveal ideas reflecting shared social
processes and socially available understandings. Although there can be no claim to universality or generalisation, the discussion which follows may offer insights relevant to women of European decent who have experienced the death of their mothers.
Introducing the three discourses
The discourses of Continuity, Discontinuity and Silencing can all be identified at some time, and in some form, in the talk of the fifteen women in this study. Of course, not all aspects of each discourse are present in any one transcript because they emerged through an inductive process of discovery within the corpus of the text.
Before discussing the patterning of the three discourses within a metadiscourse of grief, the defining characteristics of each discourse will be introduced.