A generative metaphor: Dying and death in young children’s imaginative play by Rachel Rosen a presentation from the BSA Sociology of Death, Dying and Bereavement Study Group Symposium on 15 November 2013.

1. A generative metaphor:
Dying and death in young children’s imaginative play
Rachel Rosen, r.rosen@ioe.ac.uk

2. Kaltrina pointed into the distance and
shrieked: ‘A monster! Hide in my house!’
The group of children she had been with
ran to the treed area at the back of the
outdoor area. Once inside the junglehouse, the ‘doorbell’ at the bottom of
the muddy hill started ringing. Kaltrina
ran to open the ‘door’ and many more
children came in seeking refuge from the
monster.
Maribel joined the children running into
the open door. Once settled in safely, her
eyes rolled back in her head until her lids
fluttered closed and she slithered to the
ground. ‘I’m dead,’ she whispered, lying
motionless in the centre of the jungle
house.
Nasra responded shyly, ‘I’ll be the
doctor,’ mixing potions and pouring the
invisible substances into Maribel’s mouth
as well as giving her mimed ‘injections’ in
various parts of her body. Despite these
extensive ministrations, Maribel did not
move or blink.
Mark came roaring in with an
ambulance siren blaring and set to work
on Maribel, pumping up and down on
her stomach. Nonetheless, he couldn’t
revive her either.
Seeing the action, Tanveer fell to the
ground crying, ‘I’m dying; I’m dying,’
and then lay stretched out on the
ground, completely still with his eyes
closed. Peter and Nandan soon
followed, sliding to the ground in ‘death
position’.
Abdul-dog rushed over on his hands
and knees growling and puffing, bearing
down on Tanveer. ‘Hey,’ shouted
Tanveer angrily, pushing the dog off.
Abdul-dog whimpered and rubbed
against my leg. ‘My fire makes them
better,’ he replied plaintively referring
to his hot fiery breath. Tanveer
relented: ‘Ok, just a small one.’ He
returned to his motionless, supine
position as Abdul blew his fiery breath.

3. Literal accounts of death play
• Developmentally unable
to understand that death
is irreversible and has a
cause (e.g. Cox, Garrett
and Graham, 2004)
• Mode in which children
construct understandings
about mortality and death
rites (Lofdahl, 2005)
• Form of catharsis
(Goldstein, 1995; Holland,
2003)

4. Limitations of literal views of death play
• Catharsis and
meaning-making
not assured
• Assumes Deficit
view of childhood
• Play as a
transformative
interaction
unsettles literal
interpretations

5. Play: a contestive act
• ‘To play is to interrupt
the flow of events, to
seize themes from those
and other settings, and to
apprehend these themes
in distinctive ways.’
(Henricks, 2006: 185)
• Ambiguous (Sutton-Smith,
1997)
• The enactment of
movable meanings which
reconfigure the world in
new ways

6. Death as a generative metaphor
• Generative metaphor
(Schön, 1993)
• Uncertainty: position,
continued participation,
and level of influence
over the narrative
• Dying/death productive
of sustained emotional
and physical attentions to
the ‘corpse’

7. Death to provoke caring touch
• Touch permissible
• Touch demanded
• Embodied invitation for
physical proximity and
touch issued to peers

8. Implications of death trope in play
Strains at:
• reduction of social relations
to terms of economic
calculation motivated by
self-interest (Sevenhuijsen, 1998)
• individualism with its
emphasis on corporeal
containment (Elias, 1994)
Young children as capable of
‘attentiveness’ (Tronto, 1989: 177)

9. Implications for the everyday world
• Possibilities for adults
and children to make
sense of the difficult
and challenging
nature of death and
bereavement together
• Value of caring