GRIEF IN ANDREW GARFIELD’S INTERVIEW: A POSITIVE DISCOURSE ANALYSIS

In this study examine how Andrew Garfield uses discursive strategies in the articulation of grief and resilience in dealing with the loss of his Mother and analyze this according to positive discourse analysis. It is how Garfield goes about reframing mourning as an act of love, transformation, and creative expression that the research describes. This study is methodological in nature and uses qualitative methods to analyze Garfield’s interview with Anderson Cooper which was sourced from CNN’s YouTube and podcast platform.

It is found that Garfield’s discourse employs metaphorical framing, linguistic repetition and narrative reconstruction to challenge dominant cultural scripts of grief. He rethinks the metaphors of illness by refusing the combative ones and instead looks at grief as a continuing relationship, which establishes a perspective that makes mourning part of the way we live our lives, the way we think about life. His use of metaphors, such as grief as an ocean, a journey, or an artistic force, reshapes loss as a transformative process rather than a finite state. Moreover, Garfield’s reflections criticize social practices of stifling grief and urge for a more open, participative approach as suggested by alternative cultural understandings, including indigenous views.

The results of this study indicate that Positive Discourse Analysis has potential in understanding how people implement grief discourse in order to maintain resilience and positive reframing. Garfield’s narrative attests that mourning can be not an adversarial battle but a means of emotional presence, personal growth and life in community. His discourse brings love to the forefront as a model of mourning that is not presented as just agents must overcome initially for the love to return (as in conjunction) in time, but one that also offers affirmation of the alternate model of the mourning of one’s grind that embraces our vulnerability and its life affirming potential.