The Language of Illness and Death on Social Media: An Affective Approach (Sharing Death Online)

The authors begin by setting out the established and recent research on social and existential media, affect and language, before focusing on Facebook groups dealing with the illness and death of two Danish children. Through these in-depth case studies, they produce insights into different ways of engaging in affective processes related to illness and death on social media, and into both the ritualized and innovative vernacular vocabulary created through these encounters. 

Developing an analytical framework for understanding the social role and logics of "affective language" (such as emojis, interjections and other forms of expressive interactive writing), The Language of Illness and Death on Social Media will be of great interest to all those striving to understand the affective importance and roles of language for sharing experiences of illness, death and commemoration in these spheres.

Tina Thode Hougaard is Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Culture, Aarhus University, Denmark. Articles on this topic include "Emojier, interjektioner og affekt – sorg og medfølelse på Facebook" in 16. Møde om Udforskningen af Dansk Sprog (2017, Aarhus Universitet), "Interjections, phonetics, and the body", Scandinavian Studies in Language (2018) and "Emojis in the Digital Writings of Young Danes" in Youth language. Current perspectives of International Research (Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2018, co-author). She is co-editor of Scandinavian Studies in Language and Møde om Udforskning af Dansk Sprog. Her research deals with interaction and use of language in social media.