Discursive construction of fatherly suicide

Justyna Ziółkowska , Dariusz Galasiński

Abstract

In this article we are interested in stories of sons and daughters about their fathers who completed suicide. The data come from 10 interviews with survivors of suicidal death of their fathers. Taking a constructionist view of discourse, we aim to analyse sons’ and daughters’ narratives in the context of two conflicting discourses of (positive) fatherhood and (negative) suicide. We shall show how they use the discursive strategies of distancing in the narratives about fathers’ suicide as a means of coping with the two conflicting discourses. And so, first, they avoid labelling the act as suicide, second, they avoid direct reference to the fact that it was their father who completed the act, third, they dilute the father’s responsibility for the act.